of the
of
hit
r^..Jiri-^ t ^XV. J(^lU..
THE
SEXUAL INSTINCT
ITS
USE AND DANGERS
AS AFFECTING
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ESSENTIALS TO THE WELFARE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
AND THE FUTURE OF THE RACE
BY
JAMES FOSTER SCOTT
B.A. (Yale University), M.D., C.M. (Edinburgh Universi
ty)
IATB OBSTETRICIAN TO COLUMBIA HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN, ANU LYING-IN ASYLUM,
WASHINGTON, D. C.; LATE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE" MEDICAL ASSO-
CIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK
E. B. TRBAT & COMPANY
241-243 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
COPYRIGHT, 1898
By E. B. TREAT & COMPANY
NEW YORK
'
" If it is possible to perfect mankind) the means
of doing so will be found in the medical sciences."
DESCARTES.
PEEFACE.
THIS book contains much plain talking, for which
I offer no defence. Its justification will be found in
the body of the work.
To see men give rein to their animal passions, sub-
jecting themselves and others to so many risks of
which they are ignorant, is intensely saddening.
Jeremy Taylor says : " It is impossible to make peo-
ple understand their ignorance, for it requires knowl-
edge to perceive it ; and, therefore, he that can perceive
it hath it not. " Readers will pardon me for saying that
my object is to make them understand their ignorance
to enable them to perceive it so that they may have
it not.
The design of this work is to furnish the non-pro-
fessional man with a sufficiently thorough knowledge
of matters pertaining to the sexual sphere knowledge
which he cannot afford to be without.
Ever mindful of the saying of Huxley, that " knowl-
edge does not go beyond phenomena," I have endeav-
ored to convey this knowledge in language free as
far as possible from technical terms and intelligible to
laymen. My endeavor has been to avoid generaliza-
6 PREFACE.
tion, vagueness and indefiniteness to truthfully pre-
sent physical and ethical facts not evading unpleasant
topics, nor yet transgressing the limits of propriety.
Science strips all draperies from the objects it ex-
amines, and, in the search after truth, sees no indeco-
rum in any earnest line of study, and recognizes no
impropriety in looking at objects under an intense
light and in good focus.
I have conscientiously avoided making any state-
ment of fact which I believe to be debatable, and have
formulated nothing which I fear to present to the tests
of time or criticism.
The future prospects of humanity, of course, rest in
the sexual domain of those who are now living, and
none will dispute that the degradation of mankind is
due more to sexual irregularity than to any other cause.
It is commonly said that it is a hopeless task to turn
the stream of the sexual activities into orderly chan-
nels. So also is it a hopeless task to do away with
murder, theft, drunkenness, lying, and other preva-
lent misdeeds. Evils, however, can be mitigated, if
not cured, if we subject them to a philosophical analy-
sis, which may suggest remedies.
Civilization has very slowly come to the race ; and
the tribes, originally barbarous, have required long
periods of development for their higher enlighten-
ment. The operation of Natural Law is leisurely, but
unerring in its regular correlation of causes with
definite effects ; thus if the individual maintain him-
self as a desirable ancestor, the blessings of his self-
restraint will, by the operation of the law of the "sur-
vival of the fittest," accrue to his posterity, who tencl
to increase in the ratio of a geometrical progression*
PREFACE. 7
On the other hand, the progeny of the careless and the
faulty will surely be affected, physically or psychically,
or both.
In fairness to myself it must be stated that my
knowledge of these subjects has been acquired through
legitimate channels. Upon my very entrance into
university life my attention was first directed to the
subject by an address from the late President Porter
of Yale University; then came the experience as a
medical student at Edinburgh, Vienna and London;
then a residence of two and a half years in a hospital
devoted exclusively to obstetrics and the diseases of
women, followed by several years more of hospital and
private practice.
Thus I have learned to appreciate and respect the
role of women in nature, and to abhor the ignorance
which will permit men to throw aside the elements of
their manhood veracity, cleanliness, health, and fit-
ness for ancestorship. Such men I have seen by hun-
dreds in the venereal wards of hospitals and at large.
I have made it a point to discuss the subject-matter
of this work with several widely different kinds of ad-
visers men of science, doctors, ministers, lawyers,
and with quite a large number of "men about town."
Some of it has also been prudently discussed with
women.
It is noteworthy that these various classes of coun-
sellors, who surely afford the fairest test, agree with
what has been said ; and perhaps the most emphatic
assent of all comes from men of loose morals many of
whom, I have cause to believe, have, through free dis-
cussion upon the various points in this work, been led
to abandon illicit indulgence.
8 PREFACE.
Painful as it is to treat subjects so repulsive, a man
cannot choose his duty, nor can he honestly evade it.
Therefore, knowing of no other book of like character,
I present this as the best effort of which I am at pres-
ent capable for the preservation of the individual and
the welfare of the race.
JAMES FOSTER SCOTT.
NOTE. OWING to Dr. Scott's absence from the
country while his work was going through the press,
he committed the final revision and proof-reading to
a medical friend. A very considerable abridgment has
been found necessary to bring the book within the re-
quired limit of size and price. If, therefore, a want of
continuity or of completeness be found in any portion,
the responsibility rests upon the reviser and not upon
the author. The few notes added by the reviser are
signed "ED."
WASHINGTON, D.C.
October, 1898.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY THE SEXUAL INSTINCT AND THE IM-
PORTANCE OF A JUST APPRECIATION OF ITS INFLUENCE.
PAGE
Self-preservation and the sexual instinct the two chief impulses
which govern human action Importance of rightly compre-
hending the sexual side of one's nature Sin luxuriates in
ignorance and secrecy Enemies of posterity Fatherhood and
justice to offspring Character chiefly developed during de-
velopmental period Laws of nature and morality coincide
The grave responsibilities incurred in the lustful life Chil-
dren of the vigorous tend to survive, while the progeny of the
vicious tend to become eliminated Nature leisurely in pun-
ishing No pardon granted for sins against the body The
aftermath of lust which physicians see No animal so bad as
some men Perfect continence compatible with health Self-
control and altruism Pure glow of the sexual functions is the
well-spring of all the majestic qualities of man Impairment
of sexual vigor a terrible calamity Ethical defect associated
with vitiation of it Danger for every uninstructed man
Conscience, duty and sympathy racial instincts Heredity,
the past at work in the present Progeny of the impure, sons
and daughters alike, tend to have a surcharge of erotic inclina-
tionMan, like the animals, should at the least show an equal-
ity toward his female, 17
CHAPTER II. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE.
The stages of human life Contrasts between the sexes Woman's
sexual role in nature more important Changes in the male
Changes in the female Chivalry should always be shown to
women Influence of the reproductive glands on mind and
body Care of the pubescent child Periodicity the law in
women Causes which predispose to masturbation Children
to be taught self-mastery Puberty the formative and critical
period of life Prudent enlightenment of children essential
Sociability of the sexes a safeguard Man zoologically classi-
fied with the animals The female more distinctly sexual
10 CONTENTS.
PAGE
Nubility, or the proper age for marriage Female marriage-
able before the male The climacteric, 47
CHAPTER III. A PROPER CALCULATION OP THE CONSEQUENCES OP
IMPURITY FROM THE PERSONAL STANDPOINT.
Greatest happiness principle Two classes of men, the pure and
the impure Chastity a battle royal Sexual inclinations pow-
erful when maturity is reached Directing influence of the
sexual instinct The fountain-source of love Pure girls often
degraded by marriage Fornicators almost sure to become dis-
eased Sowing of " wild oats" reserved by men for themselves
Brothel inmates and the kind of men who frequent them
Prostitutes not soulless creatures Venereal diseases exceed-
ingly grave The kind of men seen in venereal dispensaries
Bad work of charlatans Venereal patients are poisonous ani-
mals Fallen men the enemies of society Purity of life the
greatest incentive to marriage Intercourse with harlots pol-
lutes the mind Real love A travesty of love Varieties of
impotence Percentage of unhappy marriages The secret of
happy marriages Health not dependent on sexual indulgence
Reproductive glands do not atrophy from disuse All repu-
table scientists advocate purity and self-control Sexual dis-
eases practically never seen in the chaste Prostitutes treated
as wild animals Woman's honor rests on man's sympathy
Importance of heredity A chaste man described The pro-
geny of the impure Reform easier for men than for women
Adultery Only the chaste feel the pure glow of sexual pas-
sion, 73
CHAPTER IV. WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OP DEGRADING HER.
Woman's role in nature Womanly attributes Manly attributes
Women's gentler qualities unfit them for meeting men on an
equal footing Why men venerate their mothers Woman's
and man's strength contrasted Woman's sexual feeling strong,
while sensuality is weak in her Man the glory and the shame
of the world Normal man deeply chivalrous to the female sex
Impurity destroys sense of chivalry Manliness dependent on
purity The essentials of manliness The impure man lays
down the crown of manhood Defenceless girls the chief suf-
ferers The nature of the love of men and women Sexual
damage destroys capacity to be a lover Sexuality at the bot-
tom of all true conjugal love Platonic love Sexual feelings
exercise a directive power over most human activities Wo-
CONTENTS. 11
PAGE
man the most exalted of created beings Man's love not so
deep and lasting Romantic love Woman shows the marks of
sin permanently Woman's true sphere Her safety lies in
higher education Franchise for women Age of consent
Unjust legislators Brutish men the excreta of society and con-
sequently they should be set apart, ..... 119
CHAPTER V.- SOME OP THE INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL
IMMORALITY.
Abuse of spirituous liquors Dancing is a secondary sexual love-
feast " Girl of the period " overdressed Ornamentation de-
signed to sexually attract the opposite sex Fetichism, or in-
dividual preferences Feminine modesty put to severe strain
in ball-room The modern stage Modern tendency erotic and
sensuous Glorification of vice Ladies have no excuse for
patronizing indecent plays The stage no place for pure wo-
men The nude and the vulgar in art Legitimate art elevating
Nature and true art not at variance Modern art tending to
vulgarity Employment of female models Demoralizing lit-
erature Daily press Women welcomed by the public only
when they amuse Society seeks pleasure before all else De-
cent members of the community should have higher standards, 147
CH4PTER VI. PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES THAT LEAD A
WOMAN INTO SUCH A LIFE.
Mature of the harlot's work Penalties all heaped on her The
fallen man more to blame Woman's extremity too often man's
opportunity Numerous influences which draw women astray
The lustful passion in women Prostitutes mostly from
lower walks of life Seduction Harlotry and drunkenness go
hand in hand Poverty Starvation wages Stores, factories
and "sweat-shops" Familiarity and disrespect from men
Absence of religious training and belief Fallen women de-
barred from churches while their paramours are welcomed
Abandonment of wives and false marriages "^lassage par-
lors" Clandestine prostitutes Cost of prostitution Happi-
ness for the fallen woman impossible Suicide frequent
Physical results deplorable to both sexes Men, not women,
the ones to be appealed to Double standard of morality If
prostitution is necessary, the work of reformation is a mistake
-^Civilization somewhat protected by the sterility of profligate
men and women The law of "survival of the fittest" protects
12 CONTENTS.
PAGE
the race No man can retain his character as a gentleman who
allows himself to be classed with such people, . . . 169
CHAPTER VII. THE REGULATION OP PROSTITUTION.
Some countries enter into the business Object of regulation is to
protect society, but the exact opposite maintains Abandon-
ment of the system in many parts of Europe Results of the
wicked regulation system Three methods of dealing with
prostitution Let-alone system Regulation system Repres-
sive system A judicious repressive system the only proper
course Laws cannot be just when they clash with nature, . 203
CHAPTER VIII. CRIMINAL ABORTION.
Illegitimacy or criminal abortion the goal of lust Consequences
accrue to mother and babe Fceticide equivalent to murder
Semen Its sole design is for procreation No time in a wo-
man's sexual life when she -may not be impregnated Physi-
ology of reproduction and development Female reproductive
elements supplied monthly independently of the woman's will
Conception and the development of the foetus Life begins
at moment of impregnation The process more wonderful than
a miracle, because it is constantly happening instead of only
once Definition of abortion Historical Enormous prevalence
of the crime to-day Evil work of the press in advertising
charlatans and nostrums Therapeutic, or justifiable abortion
Ineffectual punishment of criminal abortion The abortion-
ist described Risks and dangers of the act Severe hemor-
rhage and blood-poisoning the rule The surgeon's method
in inevitable abortions The abortionist's methods Women
rarely regain complete health after criminal abortion The
glories of maternity Women stand at the summit of nature
The infant is the "tutor for the affections" of its parents
Sexual intercourse the highest expression of love Highest
function of a true man is to protect the woman with whom he
has mated and also their offspring Man but the crown of wo-
man's glory Criminal abortion the most unnatural of all
crimes No possible defence The act shown to be a gross
perversion and an ignominious downfall from true manhood
or true womanhood, 229
CHAPTER IX. GONORRHOEA.
Gonorrhoea a serious malady A prevalent and formidable disease
Historical Seemingly trifling at first, it tends to do irrep-
CONTENTS. 13
PAGE
arable damage Definitions of venereal diseases Eighty per
cent of men are said to have had gonorrhoea at some time in
their lives Gonorrhoea does not taint the blood in the same
way that syphilis does Due to the growth of the " gonococcus"
Gleet Any mucous membrane may be attacked Signs,
symptoms and mode of onset of gonorrhcsaThe various stages
All venereal diseases are elective diseases Period of incuba-
tion Convalescent stage often prolonged for years Relapses-
Internal remedies alone inadequate to effect a cure Treatment
of acute gonorrhoea A description of the treatment gives a clearer
insight into the nature of the disease Ptomains Gonorrhoeal
cases difficult to treat on agcount of the secrecy required, lying
propensities of patients and their bad habits The abortive
method The general methods Combined use of irrigations
and internal remedies Chronic gonorrhoea Gleet may remain
for years Tendency for gonorrhoea to remain latent One at-
tack affords no immunity Spermatorrhoea Difficulties in de-
ciding when a cure is attained Danger in marriage with such
men Ihe complications of gonorrhoea Varieties Damage may
become apparent only after the lapse of years after patient had
supposed himself cured Stricture of urethra Slow in devel-
opmentConstant tendency to grow worse Urine tends to
become foul Bladder inflammation Urinary fistulse Abscess
of prostate Epididymitis the most common complication of
gonorrhoea It tends to produce sterility Inflammation of
seminal vesicles Various other complications in the male, e.g.,
inflammation of prostate gland, prostatorrhcea, cowperitis, bal-
anitis, etc. Treatment, 307
GONORRHOEA IN WOMEN.
Gonorrhoea not usually early recognized in the female Conclu-
sions of various authorities Gonorrhoea in women more se-
vere and fatal than syphilis Mode of onset and gravity of re-
sults Acute and chronic forms Invasion of uterus, Fallopian
tubes, ovaries and peritoneum Sterility from gonorrhoea
"One-child sterility" Women usually infected innocently by
reformed husbands who were never cured, or by profligate hus-
bands, 375
COMPLICATIONS OP GONORRHCEA COMMON TO BOTH SEXES.
Inflammation of kidneys and bladder Buboes Peritonitis Gonor-
rhoeal rheumatism Affections of heart and pyaemia Con-
14 CONTENTS.
PAOB
junctivitis and ophthalmia Affections of skin Gonorrhoea in
the infant Blindness often results Any mucous membrane
may be infected, ......... 389
CHAPTER X. CHANCROID.
Otherwise called "soft chancre" Cause Mode of onset Fre-
quency Complications Treatment, ..... 395
CHAPTER XI. SYPHILIS.
History Its malignancy among aborigines Its nature It is infec-
tious, inoculable and transmissible to posterity The " initial
lesion, " or "hard chancre" Caused, probably, by the bacillus
of Lustgarten Acquired and hereditary forms Modes of ac-
quiring it Primary, secondary and tertiary stages Syphilitic
patients should be quarantined during active stages Hered-
itary sypJiilis -No initial lesion no well-defined stages Trans-
mission may be from either or both parents Abortions frequent
in syphilis If born, the child is usually a blasted creature
Stocking complications Syphilis and marriage In strict
justice syphilitics should not be allowed to marry Treatment
. in syphilis, .......... 399
CHAPTER XII. -ONANISM.
Definition Predisposing causes Varieties Results Injury to
body and mind Evil effects chiefly expended on the nervous
system Self-control becomes weakened The imagination and
the finer endowments of the individual suffer the greatest dam-
age Onanist may be impotent to copulate or to procreate
He becomes the counterfeit of a man in cases where excess is
great Treatment, ......... 419
CHAPTER XIII. THE PERVERSIONS.
Definition Sexually over-stimulated ancestors and evil environ-
ment largely the cause Erotic fetichism A purely psycho-
logical phenomenon Importance of impressions received at
puberty Various fetiches Sadism Desire to inflict cruelty
Lust-murder Mutilation and defilement of corpses Injury
to women Sadistic acts on animals Sadism in women Maso-
chism Desire for abuse and humiliation Masochism in women
Sexual bondage Contrary sexual instinct Pederasty Incest
Other gross acts punishable by law, ..... 433
CHAPTEE I.
INTRODUCTION. THE SEXUAL INSTINCT AND THE IMPORTANCE
OF A JUST APPRECIATION OF ITS INFLUENCE.
THE strongest of all instincts, pertaining in common to
all living beings, mankind included, is admittedly that of
Self-Preservation. The second strongest instinct is the
Sexual, or the instinct of propagation. These are funda-
mental and permanent, whether consciously recognized or
not.
Upon due reflection, and interpreted broadly, it will
be appreciated that the sexual instinct has been deeply
stamped upon the individuality of every normal person. "
And we may safely go so far as to say that the two chief, if
not sole, influences which govern all human endeavor and
action are these innate propensities of self -conservation and
the desire for the reproduction of the species.
The instinct of self-preservation leads us to do those
things which will bo of material advantage to us in assur-
ing health and prosperity ; and in fulfilment of this law we
are impelled to a steady application to business or other
pursuits by which we may accumulate property, and are
led to conform to moral restraints and laws for our welfare
in this world, and for a deliverance from the penalties of
sin, of which we stand in more or less fear, in the life to
come.
In the process of the building up of our civilization we
cannot fail to observe that the confidence in an immortal
life beyond the grave has exerted a tremendous influence
2
18 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
upon our conduct in this life, so that we not infrequently
go contrary to our desires out of an extra-rational motive
of altruism, largely through a feeling of love to our neigh-
bors, and partly on account of the hope of ultimate advan-
tage to ourselves.
In this respect, the instinct of self-preservation in man-
kind admits of a wider interpretation than it does in the
lower animals ; for with us our hopes extend to at least
some feeling of reliance in a future state; and it need
hardly be pointed out that in the physiology of mankind
there is a fixed correlation of the moral and physical
natures. With us, therefore, the principle of self-preserva-
tion is to no small degree modified by altruism, by which
influence we have the power of progress ; and not seldom
the rudiments of a self-sacrificing morality are also to be
found among the inferior animals.
The sexual instinct irresistibly attracts to each other
individuals whose generative organs differ in physical
characteristics, anatomically and physiologically, and it
insures the development of families and the perpetuation
of the race. It makes one proud of his manhood or of her
womanhood, and is in fact the indispensable quality which
marks the perfect man or perfect woman.
" Sexual love is the passion which unites the sexes. The
stimulating impressions produced by health, youth, and
beauty, and ornaments and other artificial means of attrac-
tion, are all elements of this feeling. . . . Around the sex-
ual appetite as the leading element there are aggregated
many different feelings, such as admiration, pleasure of
possession, love of freedom, self-esteem, and love of appro-
bation. A complete analysis of love would fill a volume."
It is this instinct which is the source of most that is
pure and noble in us ; and if we were bereft of it there would
be an arrest of development of all our virile qualities.
From it arise our love for home, our rivalry in sports, our
1 Westermarck, " History of Human Marriage, " p. 356.
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 19
desire to associate with the opposite sex, our delight in
music, poetry, romance, ornamentation, sculpture, paint-
ing, and all the attributes of art. Without it, emulation
would sleep and virtue flee, and we should be as those who
are emasculated or as those whose potency is in any way
impaired cowardly, unfit for battle, without the distinc-
tive qualities of sexual beauty, flabby in muscle, inferior in
mental power, lacking in moral sense, and disinclined to
courtship.
With its disappearance would come the extinction of the
family line, while with its vitiation are transmitted to one's
offspring evil tendencies which appear in multitudinous
forms in the provinces of immorality, criminality, insanity,
perversity, and various other defects traceable to hereditary
influence.
Every normal individual has unmistakable evidences of
sexual longings and desire, and from this domain come
those impulses which are foremost in our careers.
Consequently it is every man's duty to rightly under-
stand this part of his nature, and to have a fall compre-
hension of the consequences which surely follow upon the
vitiation or perverse use of his generative functions.
The sexual power, if properly subjugated, is capable of
uplifting man to the highest levels ; but if given license it
may bear him down to the lowest depths of infamy and
distress, and bring down in the catastrophe others whose
lives and fortunes are bound up with his.
It is, then, a mischievously stupid thing to be ignorant
in regard to sexual hygiene and conduct, and no rational
man should be content to go through life blindfolded to
those functions which are the strongest elements of his
nature. He who does not properly understand this potent
factor of sexuality is extremely limited in his power for
good, but well equipped for exerting a pernicious influ-
ence for every individual who is possessed of the strongly
characteristic attributes of manhood must belong either to
20 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the side which is in favor of purity, or to the faction which
practises and advocates sensuality. After the advent of
puberty a neutral or indifferent attitude is impossible.
One intelligent, well-informed, vigorous and noble-
minded man is of course worth a thousand mediocre men
who have distorted tastes and ill-developed physiques ; and
none can hope by his influence to elevate or improve the
tribe or community in which he lives unless he is in some
degree superior to the average more or less irresponsible
and flippant members. It is in this way that racial
improvement and human progress come about, by the
advancement from the ranks of certain more responsible
individuals, who, little by little, set the standards which
are ultimately accepted.
Ignorance is a great evil and the best friend of Vice,
while knowledge is the very foundation upon which the
stability of the state most securely rests.
It is hardly necessary to say that improper sexual con-
duct is rife among us, and that it is polluting the sanctity
of our homes to a degree only superficially appreciated.
The pure, healthy glow of Sexuality, which is the greatest
boon to the individual and to the race, becomes a curse
when debased by Sensuality. These two words have be-
come confused in the language of men of the world: so
much so, that what we grant to be pre-eminently necessary
for the assurance of a virile race namely, sexual power
has been prostituted by sensuality.
Voluptuousness, of course, has as its indispensable con-
dition the degradation of a large number of women, and it
has come to be a turbulent force which is actively consum-
ing a large proportion of the community of every district,
annihilating reputations with disgrace, consuming bodies
with disease, polluting the sacredness of the family and
the home, caricaturing the loftiness of love, and defiling
the sacredness of marriage.
There aro few of either sex in this age who do not know
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 21
that vice and immorality and harlotry exist to a shocking
degree; and reticence upon these matters cannot improve
our ethics, for sin simply luxuriates in secrecy and igno-
rance.
It shall be the purpose of this book to supply the reader
with all the scientifically accurate teachings which relate
to or bear upon a life of immorality, and he shall be left
to weigh the results and the conclusions according to his
own judgment. The author's aim is not to preach, but to
teach, and to present the truth in its absolute form without
distortion or bias.
Every mature man knows fairly well what the allure-
ments to immorality are, and that every well-developed
youth must sooner or later pass through the ordeal of
temptation; but comparatively few are grounded in the
arguments which conclusively show how necessary it is to
preserve the sexual glow in its pure and undefiled vigor.
What sin is more universal than impurity? It is as
ancient as history itself, and it has played the most impor-
tant part in the decline and fall of once noble and powerful
nations . The sexual appetite remains with a man and
gives a coloring to his life from the time of his puberty all
through his active career, sometimes persisting with con-
siderable ardor even to extreme old age.
Simple warning positively will not save a boy when he
has left his neuter characteristics behind him and has
been thrown out into the world. He must be taught those
things which Le is sure to need when he grows up; for ex-
perience teaches that if a man is to remain pure a battle-
royal is in store for him, and that he may be overthrown
in the struggle unless he is a " hoplite, " or heavy-armed
soldier, equipped with helmet, cuirass, greaves and shield,
bearing a sword and spear, and sheathed in the panoply of
knowledge.
Thoughtless persons are continually saying that to speak
out plainly on these subjects merely fans the erotic fancy
22 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
into a flame, and that it is a mistake to suggest anything
of a sexual nature. Nothing could be more pernicious
than this error, for the imperiousness of the sexual ap-
petite will unfailingly assert itself in thought or action
throughout manhood's days, and an ignorant person's
influence for good will be nil, for he knows neither the
truth of that which he speaks, nor the just measure of the
results of his actions.
Reflect for a moment upon the enormous amount of harm
which not speaking out has done ! Every man sooner or
later adopts some sort of creed for the conduct of his sex-
ual life ; but medical men realize that these opinions are,
as a rule, erroneous and immoral.
An enormous evil is threatening us and surrounds us
on every side, poisoning our social relations, our amuse-
ments, our literature, our drama and our art. It is spar-
ing neither the noble boy nor the innocent maiden, and is
exhaling a deadly influence whose venom will continue,
through heredity, to fester in generations to come.
The enemies of the normal standards which govern the
sex-life are bold and active in their abetting of lascivious-
ness, and the calamitous results of their work cannot be met
by a timid and retiring silence. Society, being at present
in a position wherein it tolerates the most odious vices,
must learn as well to endure the remedies which aim to
secure decency, good order and morality.
There is a criminal and degrading ignorance among men
otherwise well informed, in regard to the importance and
gravity of the sexual act. The Creator of all has made
each individual a sub-creator, and it behooves every true
man to look forward to fatherhood with a fixed resolve to
be just to his offspring. It is, furthermore, the duty of
fathers to instruct their sons so that they shall have noth-
ing to regret when they look upon their first-born children.
If a man who is to be a father plays the fool, his sons and
daughters will suffer. The " fathers have eaten sour grapes,
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 23
and the children's teeth are set on edge," says the Jewish
proverb.
The time has come when it will not avail a man to say
that he knows nothing definite about these matters, for in
the following pages the means of becoming intelligent in
regard to sexual conduct are at least indicated. It is a
comfort to believe that the majority of men will do right
when they fully understand this important subject; and if
any reader is ignorant or rusty in his knowledge, it is high
time for him to "get out a new edition of himself."
Innocence and ignorance in regard to vice are no safe-
guard to a young man or woman in this age when it is so
evident on every hand, and no fond parent need flatter
himself that his pure girl or boy will not sooner or later
become subjected to improper conversation and influences.
Too often children are sent to schools which are the very
hotbeds of temptation, without a single word of reliable
warning or teaching to guide them. How much more just
to them it would be to send them out properly instructed
than to leave these momentous questions to their school-
mates for settlement !
Youth is the time of life when the boy or girl hopes to
develop into a physically beautiful man or woman. Then
they have active intellects and ambitions for everything
which is good and noble. No one can foretell what a boy
will become when he is fully developed ; and as a rule the
child appreciates this perfectly well, so that he will, under
the stimulus of kindly encouragement, seek the good and
eschew evil if he understands the relationship of vice and
its consequences. From an educational standpoint this is
by far the most important period of life ; for the mature
man will almost invariably continue to show the same in-
stincts and characteristics which he had when a child, and
a boy can no more postpone the developing of his charac-
ter to his manhood days than he can the strengthening of
his muscles. " It is worthy of remark that a belief con-
24 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
stantly inculcated during the early years of life, whilst the
brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature
of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it
is followed independently of reason." ' How important it
is, then, that a child should start out with healthy inclina-
tions, and not by great mistakes !
A young man nowadays is expected to know a good deal
about sexual matters, and men laugh at those who are
entirely ignorant and uninformed. Rarely is it possible to
find one who has no ideas at all in this direction; nor is
such innocence commendable. As a rule, unfortunately,
young men attain their knowledge by participation in evil
ways and from evil conversation, and therefore their con-
clusions must necessarily be erroneous. Complete igno-
rance is impossible. Men will have either true or false
notions : if false, they will be led into great and irreparable
harm ; if true, they will recoil in horror at the awful conse-
quences of impurity to themselves, to womankind, and to
posterity. One who does not fully understand these ques-
tions is like a ship which puts to sea with a skipper in
charge who does not properly understand navigation.
In the voyage of life, from the port of clearance to the
final haven, it is impossible forever to hug the shore ; and
he is a poor mariner indeed who is fit only for fair-weather
sailing. Men are so constituted, in contradistinction to
women, that it is hardly possible for them, if they are sound
and strong, to grow up to mature age immaculate, and
without the fault of a sensual thought, word, or deed ; and
there can be no gainsaying this. But as true men we
hope to have power to resist temptation that the swords
which we would wrongfully wield may be as lead, and that
whatever knowledge we have may be turned to the benefit
and advantage of our brothers. If any one has fallen into
the mire, let us " condemn the fault, and not the actor of
it," and let us help him out, if we can, by showing him
1 Darwin, "The Descent of Man," p. 122.
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 25
why lie should cultivate his faculty of self-restraint and
become a self-governed being.
Sidney Smith says: "Yery few young men have the
power of negation in any great degree at first. Every
young man must be exposed to temptation; he cannot
learn the way of men without being witness to their vices.
If you attempt to preserve him from danger by keeping
him out of the way of it, you render him quite unfit for
any style of life in which he may be placed. The great
point is, not to turn him out too soon, and to give him a
pilot."
It will not do to indulge in youthful excesses and dissi-
pations, nor to sow "wild oats" of the kind which par-
take of the nature of sexual impurity, because this sexual
instinct is so enormously the imperious and moving power
in our whole lives that the early tampering with it may
produce a lasting impression on the cerebral centres which
may color and poison all future sexual acts even after mar-
riage. When the reaping of the harvest comes, there is
likely to be, in addition to disease which has been acquired,
a more or less unconquerable loathing for pure sexual
relations with one's wife, if the individual ever marries,
partly from fear of impotency in the pure relation with her,
partly from weakened powers brought about by excesses of
venery or masturbation, partly on account of the recollec-
tion of some former delectable lascivious situation with a
loose woman which has become an imperative and domi-
nant concept, and partly, perhaps, from an acquired pref-
erence for unnatural and perverted sexual acts. It will not
do to sow " wild oats" which leave an ineradicable stain on
the mind, nor to implant them in such soil that they may
spring up and produce a poisonous crop. Under no cir-
cumstances can any one at any time be recommended to
trifle with affairs which belong to the sexual domain, for
in sowing " wild oats" of a dirty kind a man simply inocu-
lates vice into his posterity and throws an injection of
26 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ignoble blood into the course of descent which follows
after him as an ancestor. Any kind of larks and escapades
will do which are manly, and brave, and clean and honest.
It is right that any man should " dare do all that may be-
come a man; who dares do more is none."
Suppose a youth does, through innocence, or lack of
temptation, or by reason of fortitude, arrive at maturity
with a clean record; is he not still beset with danger? Not
by any means so much so if he fully understands the shal-
lowness of the pleasures in comparison with the depth of
the penalties. Thousands upon thousands of men would
remain pure if they fully understood the responsibilities
and dangers incurred by a life of impurity ; and to those
who do gain a just information upon these matters there
is added an increase of responsibility, for they can then
no longer offer the excuse that ignorance mitigates their
offences.
Parents, too often entirely ignorant themselves, say little
or nothing to their children about these subjects, leaving
them dependent for their views upon the foolish and vicious
advice of their companions; and, unfortunately, those chil-
dren who are perversely inclined do the most talking and
exert the most influence. Whatever counsel or warning in
reference to future conduct young people get is usually
given to them by their eldors either in a way which is un-
intelligible, or without any appeal to their reason, and too
often the vita sexualis, or sexual life, of the child is left to
unfold as an undirected instinct. How much safer and
better it would be if the whole truth were expounded with
proper discrimination at suitable periods in the develop-
ment of the child's functions of body and brain !
It is amazing how much ignorance even the shrewdest
and most intellectual men display upon these topics. Men
who in affairs of business carefully consider every aspect
of a case before acting, too often put aside all serious re-
1 Macbeth, i., 7.
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 27
gard for their physical or moral health. It is this unen-
lightened condition which is productive of so much harm,
and such a misconception may well be called the " devil's
tool" by which men make excuses to their consciences for
their wrong deeds. The ignorant or wrongly instructed
man with lowered ideals is the one to fall into great harm,
being unfortified to cope with the pressing temptations
which will surely assail him. On the other hand, the man
who knows what he is about will probably keep his record
clean, and will be more apt to transfer to the future the
indulgence of his impulses.
The sexual functions being without dispute the second
most powerful of the natural instincts, there should, then,
be given to the consideration of their care and conservation
the most healthy attention. It is futile to hope for a per-
fect condition of things in a sexual way while civilization
remains as it is. Deviations from what is proper in the
sexual domain can no more be done away with entirely
than can murder, theft, drunkenness, lying, swearing, or
other crimes and vices, and yet thousands can be effectively
influenced for good if they are properly informed. Impur-
ity cannot be stamped out by making it illegal, but it can
be made impossible, to many altruistically inclined indi-
viduals at least, by replacing this sin with the law of love
for one's neighbor. Until the members of society are ac-
tuated by this principle of love a word which in itself
sums up the fundamental rules of moral action some of
the selfish ones will continue to rend the weaker to pieces
for their own personal gratification.
The aim of modern medical science is getting to be more
and more not so much to cure as to prevent disease ; and
prophylaxis, or defending against morbid processes, is
now fully recognized to be of paramount importance.
Especially does this apply to growing boys and young
persons in relation to their sexual conduct, for prevention
is far better and more hopeful than cure. In fact, a cure of
28 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the physical and mental disease and corruption is too often
impossible brain-stains being hard to wash out and dis-
ease being often incurable.
The mythical sorceress Circe first enchanted and then
transformed the fellow-voyager* of Ulysses into swine who
grovelled at her feet. And even yet, in very truth, men from
every sphere of life, married and single, rich and poor,
ignorant and educated, continue to drink the poisoned
draught from her cup.
Again, Ulysses, being warned of the sirens on the shores
of Sicily, who charmed all passers-by with their false
songs, stuffed the ears of his sailors with wax, and had
himself securely fastened to the mast of his vessel until the
ship sailed past out of the range of their voices ; and thus
he heard their enchanting music without perishing. But
no man can go through life protected by having his ears
filled with prophylactic wax, nor limited in the, range of
his vision by the wearing of blinders.
Circe and the sirens still continue to enchant and to de-
stroy ; and in order to pass by them unmoved a man must
rely on a strong force of will, fortified by a just and appre-
ciative knowledge, else " I fear me the skiff and the boat-
men will both 'neath the waters drown."
It is a vain thing to cry out, " Save our girls !" when par-
ents allow their boys to grow up into bad men. How cruel
it is to permit a son to advance to manhood without instruc-
tion ; to let him flounder along an assuredly dangerous road
without giving him all possible directions which could in
any way help him or perhaps save him from utter ruin !
Unlike the animals, man experiences shame and seeks
secrecy when he gratifies his sexual appetite. Unchastity,
being a secret sin, is therefore all the more dangerous. No
child is safe from its subtle influence, and no careless parent
can be assured that his household is secure. Few boys in-
deed escape from the contamination of the evil teachings
of their schoolfellows, and many of them acquire vitiated
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 29
tastes without in any way appreciating their gravity, while
others inherit weakened wills and "fall victims to their
grandfathers' excesses."
The saddest sight in the world is to see a man sepulchred
while yet living. Diseased himself, and with perverted
tastes, he transmits the injury to his innocent wife and
children, and no repentance is assuredly effectual unless
he remain single.
A reformed profligate makes a poor husband, being cor-
rupt in body, and the slave of the imperious voluptuous
recollections which bring before him the debased images
of the harlots with whom he formerly associated. Aye,
women can be found who will marry such men ; but they
and their offspring suffer terribly !
No man's opinion on these matters is of so much value
as the physician's. On account of the nature of his work
he has an immense advantage, and is peculiarly well quali-
fied to speak, because he sees clearly in his every-day ex-
perience the physical effects of impurity upon the man and
his paramours, and, if he marry, upon his wife and poster-
ity ; the mental effects in widespread insanity which results
from disease ; the moral effects in the loss of character, the
breaking up of home life, and the loss of confidence between
husband and wife; and the social effects in the ravages
which vice makes among a large class of humanity.
Every doctor who regards his physicianship as a sacred
trust realizes that sexual impurity is pre-eminently the
cause of most of that which stands out as hideous and dis-
gusting in society, and feels that silence regarding this
question is not in line with his duty.
In the case of a thoughtful man there should be no one
so much interested in his career as he himself, and he
should think out with far more care than any one else the
problems of life as they concern him. It is his duty and
his legitimate privilege as a man and citizen to ground
himself on the standard truths relating to this subject,
30 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
which are recognized the world over by the medical pro-
fession, and it will then be proper for him to be somewhat
dogmatic in his conclusions and arguments.
For the forcible presentation of any subject it is of ex-
treme importance to beware of such a degree of bias or
enthusiasm that one is led to be too ardent in his utter-
ances, because in that event the judicial caution is set
aside and the very purpose of persuasion defeated by ex-
citing opposition or disgust. Many a well-meant argument
has gone for naught by reason of this error. Would-be
reformers and moralists there are who lay too much stress
on those phases of the question which do not appeal to a
large majority of men, and the result is that they are
laughed at and jeered at and not taken seriously.
There are some moralists who sound the slogan : " An
equal standard of purity for both sexes !" They accentuate
the claim that the sin of unchastity is equally heinous in
men and women, and so of course it is morally. But the
greater part of mankind are selfish and prefer their own
private good before all other things, and by them such an
assertion is regarded as unworthy of belief, and is of no
effect, true as it may be.
Society has always considered that irregular sexual com-
merce is a more flagrant transgression in the case of a woman
than in that of a man, and, morality aside, it certainly is,
for an offence will necessarily be gauged by its conse-
quences. It is a greater sin for a woman to be impure be-
cause, as a possible mother, she belongs to a higher and
more important sphere, to her being intrusted the rearing
up of all posterity. While the man retains no marks of in-
jury to his anatomy as a result of copulation, nor any other
effect to which one can directly point, unless he contract
disease, the woman, on the other hand, does so suffer in
bodily injury, in the violation of her more tender emotions
and affections, and in her very countenance. All the con-
spicuous effects of sexual commerce are heaped upon her :
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 31
so much so, that an observant man can often conclude, with
a good deal of accuracy, by the outward appearance and
demeanor of a woman whether she is leading an immoral
life. An immoral man, on the other hand, is not clearly
shown to be unfitted for the society of ladies nor for the
ordinary duties of life in the way that the immoral woman
is. Her own sex spurn her and call her atrocious. There-
fore the argument that the crime is equally heinous in
both sexes cannot appeal with great force to the ordinary
man of the world who knows better. Morally, his offence
is unquestionably baser, for he stifles that chivalric feeling
which all men should at all times show to all women ; he
assumes the aggressive role, while she is passive ; he seeks
to satisfy a carnal pleasure, while she sins out of a pliant
acquiescence or for money ; he does the pushing over the
precipice in safety, while she suffers the fall; he does the
lying, and she the believing; he becomes the father of the
illegitimate child and abandons it, while she undergoes the
pains of maternity and supports it afterward with her life's
blood, unless her moral sense has been so deeply wounded
that she is led to destroy it.
But such talk is idle for a large number of men. No
limit can be placed upon the subterfuges which the lasciv-
ious man can invent in answer to such arguments as do
not directly appeal to himself.
The laws of Nature and the laws of morality which we
have accepted for our standards will always be found to
coincide ; and human society and sentiment are in accord
with them as to the importance of absolute fidelity of mar-
ried people to each other. None are so immoral as to
openly advocate adultery, for every one execrates the vio-
lator of an oath, especially if made at the marriage altar
before God and man. Whether it be single or double
adultery, is immaterial ; if either party or both be married,
it is adultery if they have sexual relations. In all coun-
tries and ages the punishments for it have been serious,
32 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and the slaying of the male offender by a woman's husband
is even yet condoned and applauded, while juries do not
attempt to be severe in their punishment of the avenger.
This is universally recognized in all parts of the world.
But with our highly organized civilization, and with our
demands for certain comforts which are now deemed essen-
tial, marriage is put off more and more remotely, so that
many cannot wed at all. "At more advanced stages of
civilization, money and inherited property often take the
place of skill, strength, and working ability. Thus, wife-
purchase and husband-purchase still persist in modern
society, though in disguised forms."
It is not meant to be inferred that one is to marry for the
mere sake of sexual gratification, though marriage properly
is and should be firmly founded upon a deep sexual feeling,
even though this desire plays an unrecognized part therein.
This is a dynamical and leading fact in the sciences of an-
thropology and sociology, and can never be lost sight of in
the evolution of the successive phases of social develop-
ment. Marriage is desirable, and is the goal toward which
every normal man, if circumstances permit, should strive.
But even though a man remain unmarried, he can do more
good to his tribe or community by setting the example of
a glorious life than can others, who do not possess his ster-
ling qualities, by the begetting of progeny.
What shall those do who cannot marry and who yet
feel the natural gnawing of the sexual appetite? Here
is the stumbling-block what men call the "natural, im-
perious appetite." These are men who have imposed no
oaths or obligations upon themselves ; who see no very evil
consequence to themselves if they follow after the night-
walking daughters of Lilith; whom society does not se-
verely condemn, and who do not recognize any very de-
cisive prohibition. Fornication most certainly is not so
wicked as adultery, and many a man persuades himself
1 Westermarck, " History of Human Marriage, " p. 382.
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 33
into the belief that he may properly indulge in it, and that
he will in some way escape the responsibility of parentage.
How shall such a man act? To aid him in the decision
this book is written, he being left to be the judge for him-
self. But this much must be demanded of him, that he act
intelligently.
To some, one argument appeals, while it disgusts others,
and many may be offended at any allusion to religion.
But in most men there is a religious element inseparably
united with the physical ; and some heed must therefore
be paid to it physiologically. Christianity says that our
bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost and that we are to
keep them pure and undefiled before God, and every reflec-
tive person of course knows that it is the part of wisdom
to keep the body clean and to have good and honest pur-
poses. The truth of this is seemingly apparent only to a
select few, while tens of thousands entirely reject it, sound
as it is from a physiological standpoint. A deep impres-
sion, however, must be made on any man when the truth
is presented in all its aspects, and when there are laid be-
fore him for his consideration the fearful responsibilities
which he incurs by following a life of immorality and lust
responsibilities for being the father of an illegitimate child
which may be and so often is killed by criminal abortion,
or which, if it lives, will be a homeless or degraded out-
cast; responsibilities for ruining a girl, or, if she has
already fallen, for helping to crush the womanhood out of
her rather than to help her up ; responsibilities for con-
tracting venereal diseases which ruin his health and happi-
ness, and which may be imparted to his wife-to-be and off-
spring for generations to come ; responsibilities to society
for promoting harlotry with all its complex evil conse-
quences, and reponsibilities for defiling all the finer moral
and emotional parts of his nature. For all of this we ab-
solutely know that the offender must personally suffer in
this present life, as well as the woman and children who
34 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
share the good and the bad with him ; and no man can
divorce himself from the strong belief that he will have to
render an account to his Maker for overstepping the bounds
of religion, which, after all, is nothing but an unrecognized
branch of higher physiology. The responsibility of tak-
ing life has been recognized from the earliest times ; the
responsibility of giving birth to life is equally great.
For such as are appealed to by any consideration of re-
ligion, it is well to reflect that everything in Holy Writ
directly teaches that the unreformed profligate, the forni-
cator and adulterer, has no place or part in the Holy City ;
that his name is blotted out from the "Book of Life," and
that he must remain "without," where are "dogs, and
sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." 1
The assurance is here emphatically given that the laws
of religion, of the true moralist, and of the physician and
hygienist are all in complete harmony, and the chaos of
confusion only exists in the disordered minds of those who
seek for excuses which would shame the inferior animals.
As Maudsley says, " The foolishest opinion has commonly
some partial facet of sense" ; and men are abroad, filled with
sophistry, who make all kinds of pretexts to justify them-
selves and others ; who call that which is bitter, sweet ; that
which is unhealthy, physiological; that which is evil,
good; and that which is a grave social harm, expedient.
Fortunately, the most worthless and shameless members of
the community are somewhat prevented from propagating
their kind by barrenness and sterility, and, as the result of
disease, their vitiated progeny are apt to be eliminated in
time.
To the vigorous, and the active and the sound, whose
generative functions remain unimpaired, with a pure and
normal glow of healthy activity, comes the satisfaction of
knowing that their descendants will be the fittest and the
1 Rev. xxii. 15.
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 35
most likely to survive in the struggle for existence ; and this
is no mean comfort to those who have the normal philo-
progenitive ambitions.
Tennyson's hero, the spotless, virgin and blameless
knight Sir Galahad, who went in quest of the Holy Grail,
made this boast :
" My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure. "
" What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ! "
SHAKESPEARE, 2 Hem*y VI. , iii. , 2.
Purity is, in fact, the crown of all real manliness ; and the
vigorous and the robust, who by repression of evil have
preserved their sexual potency, make the best husbands
and fathers, and they are the direct benefactors of the race
by begetting progeny who are not predisposed to sexual
vitiation and bodily and mental degeneracy. These are
laws which are universally recognized bv all breeders of
stock and by those who have made a study of the races of
mankind.
From a purely selfish standpoint a man must give heed
to an even stronger impulse than the sexual appetite
namely, to the law of self-preservation. He must consider
1. The peril to his body ; 2. The peril to his character or
moral constitution.
The reader is here cautioned not to rely too much on his
own slender experience, but to seek after the unalterable
truth ; for his personal observations have probably not led
him to see either the death of the body or the damnation
of the psychical characteristics, and he is not at once struck
by these perils. We must reflect that Nature is leisurely ;
and when we have added a considerable number of years to
our experience we can see that her laws pursue their
course unerringly, and that no pardon is granted for
sins committed against the body, whether knowingly or
not.
36 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The statement is almost without exception that every one
who pursues unlawful sexual indulgence to any consider-
able extent gets inoculated with disease sooner or later, and
only very rarely is it otherwise. It is the part of a foolish
man to say, "I'll take my chances," for he not only im-
perils his whole future life, and that of "his wife-to-be and
offspring, but also practically elects to acquire disease. We
physicians see these men who have " taken their chances" ;
we see sterility acquired by them and imparted to their
wives ; we see innocent wives and children suffer from un-
merited venereal diseases, the nature of which obviously
cannot be revealed ; we see the severest operations, where
women's abdomens are cut open by the surgeon's knife for
the removal of the diseased reproductive organs ; we fre-
quently see young wives rendered chronic invalids from the
time of their marriage, and sometimes we see them die;
we see premature deaths of foetuses from disease, and chil-
dren with distorted anatomy and vulnerable tissues ; we see
blind asylums and insane asylums recruited as the after-
math of men's "chances." We see men who must contin-
ually be debased by nursing their genitals ; men with whom
we come in contact with disgust, and who render filthy
whatever utensil they touch; we see men who cry from
their very souls : " Woe ! woe ! woe ! would that I had died
before I was damned!" We see men who must be in
regular attendance upon doctors, sometimes in order even
to urinate ; we see men who pay enormous sums of money
to doctors unless they dishonestly evade the payment of
their bills or take their places in venereal dispensaries with
the dregs and scum of the earth. These men must suffer,
and cause horrible suffering to others ; and even with the
best treatment and care they often cannot be assuredly
cured, and often must forever be inferior to what they orig-
inally were. Still another of Nature's penalties is over-
looked by most men. Those who have been at all obser-
vant will appreciate that the lustful act is very closely
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 37
associated with the affections, with love, and with senti-
ment. Without this disposition of the mind the mere
sensual enjoyment of the act, per se, would afford compar-
atively little pleasure. With the lower animals this is not
so, and they cannot be immoral, experiencing no shame,
being immune from venereal diseases, and having no tribal
customs of marriage.
So it is not fair to the brute creation to say that the
grossly lustful man " makes a beast of himself" when he
throws aside the human elements of his nature. And it is
certainly true that we can name no animal that is as bad as
some men.
A man cannot, however, eliminate every spark of hu-
manity from himself, nor cast aside entirely his affections
and power of loving, and the worst that can be said about
any man is probably not true. But these finer qualities of
the affections can easily be perverted, in which event they
will forever be indelibly contaminating factors in his brain,
recurring to him unbidden both in his dream-life and in
his memory even after marriage, flavoring the sexual con-
gress with his own wife by a reversion of his recollection to
former scenes of debauchery which have become with him
imperious mental concepts.
These memory-pictures are reproduced to the mind with-
out effort, spontaneously, by the association of ideas. The
nixus sensualis, or voluptuous orgasm, is attended by an
exalted hypersensibility of the cerebral cortex which renders
the brain peculiarly receptive at that time to the operation
of various concomitant influences, so that whatever impres-
sions are brought prominently before the mind during the
consummation of the sexual act are at subsequent periods
apt to be recalled to the memory, unsummoned, through
the association of ideas.
Promiscuous intercourse with women increases desire
beyond natural limits, while it also strongly perverts the
tastes and desires in a psychical sense, especially in neuro-
38 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
pathic individuals; and in this way perversions of the
genesic instinct are readily acquired.
That nation, whose men by the courage of their convic-
tions exercise patriotism and sympathy and altruism and
chastity and fidelity to themselves and to their women,
has in it the elements of a high civilization which con-
stantly tends to rise and to improve, and in the struggle
for supremacy among the tribes of the earth it will surely
be victorious over other peoples that are lewd and unchaste
and ignobly ungallant and unjust to their women.
Even the skeptic who entertains the belief that after
death there is no judgment to come, must pause to con-
sider when he is reminded that there is, after all, such a
thing as sin.
" Blinded by the conception of sin as an offence against a
supernatural power, it has been impossible for the indi-
vidual to see that sin is foolishness in the natural world,
and to realize his responsibility for being sin's fool. If it
were desired to breed a degenerate human being, sinful,
vicious, criminal, or insane, what would be the safest
recipe? To engage his progenitors in an antiphysiological
or antisocial life; to impregnate them thoroughly with
alcohol or with hypocrisy, with syphilis or with selfish-
ness, with gluttony or with guile, with an extreme lust of
the flesh or an extreme pride of life. When, mankind has
learned the ways by which degenerate beings have come to
be, it will be able to lay down rules to prevent their pro-
duction in time to come ; but in order to do that, it must
substitute for the notion of sin and its consequences in a
life to come after death the notion of fault of organic man-
ufacture and its consequences from generation to genera-
tion in the life that now is must not rest satisfied to look
outside nature for supernatural inspirations, divine or
diabolic, but seek for natural inspirations within itself which
it can observe, study, and manage."
1 Maudsley, "The Pathology of the Mind."
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 39
If the penalties meted out to the impure are so many,
there is yet comfort for the unmarried man in those pages
which show that perfect continence is quite compatible
with perfect health; and thus a great load is at once lifted
from the mind of him who wishes to be conscientious as
well as virile and in health, with all the organs of the body
performing their proper functions.
Impurity of course leads downward to decay and death ;
and out of consideration for the law of self-preservation any
wise man will adopt the course of repressing his appetite,
for the penalties which attend it are so inexorable as to be
beyond accepting.
Unless a man understand fairly well that part of his
nature which belongs to the sexual domain, he is not effec-
tively educated, and is liable to be overtaken by injury and
ruin. The result of good education is to teach self-control
and a consideration for the welfare of others, while selfish-
ness is the attribute of him who has little mentality or
education. A wise man will of course wish to know what
he ought to do and what he ought to avoid, which is im-
possible if he relies solely upon his instincts and the com-
mon talk of his companions ; and he will not be safe from
harm unless he has a just appreciation of that side of his
physical nature which is the well-spring of most that is
noble and vigorous and majestic in him. One, if not the
chief, object of education is to enable us to gain a mastery
over our animal instincts, to raise ourselves above the
level of the lower creatures, to occupy a dignified position
among the solid men of the community, and to learn how
to counteract the unfavorable hereditary tendencies which
each individual inherits from some of his numerous ances-
tors. So strong is the sexual instinct that it is natural for
men to long for women, and at some time or other to con-
template marriage : one from love, to make himself and the
woman supremely happy by having his soul knit with hers ;
one from the praiseworthy desire to beget children who
40 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
shall bring honor to his name and perpetuate the family
line; another from romance; and others purely for the base
purpose of gratifying their sensual appetites.
Since men unquestionably devote so much of their at-
tention to sexual matters, it is of the highest importance
that their thoughts should be directed in proper channels,
and that they should clearly comprehend those funda-
mental truths which at present only a select few are privi-
leged to know. Any impairment in power or function of
the sexual organs is a terrible calamity, because it makes a
man decidedly less a man, and because a vitiation of the
sexual attributes is physiologically, or rather pathologi-
cally, necessarily associated with ethical defect.
Ancesthesia, or absence of sexual desire, is deplorable ; for
then the man has the neuter characteristics of the child or
of senility, whom the beauties of women or the pleasure of
their companionship do not stimulate to manly ambitions
and conduct.
Hypercesthesm, or increased sexual desire, is deplorable ;
for then the man has an inordinate and unnatural concupis-
cence, and is thrown into an unseemly excitement, not only
by the mere presence of women and personal contact with
them, but also by lascivious mental images, or by anything
of a nature which can be distorted into obscenity. Such
men unduly magnify the importance of the vita sexualis,
or sexual life, and look upon womankind, and even objects
of feminine attire, with sensual eyes. Such a perverted
tendency, which is easily acquired, leads to very great
harm, such as obscenity of conversation and imagination,
enthusiasm for vile literature and pictures and debasing
theatrical exhibitions, and a preference for consorting with
a low set of men and women.
Parcesthesia, or perversion of the sexual instinct, is de-
plorable ; for the individual is then a " step-child of Nature. "
Largely inherited, it may also readily be acquired by mas-
turbating, or practising other execrable sexual acts. Indi-
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 41
viduals whose brains are stained in this way, with impres-
sions which are often permanent, frequently follow the
most abhorrent practices and lead astray such unfortunate
youths as they can find for their victims. Unfortunately,
the polluted mind does not appreciate its hurt.
It is not to be thought that all men who are impure suffer
such penalties as these; nor yet is it to be thought that
these conditions are very rare. It will be well for him who
so far considers himself clean and pure not to boast, lest
he may fall; for the bright steel of the sword's blade is not
safe from rust and corrosion. The dew and the wet will
quickly damage that sword unless it is held up and pro-
tected ; and although the grindstone and emery-wheel may
remove that rust, it will yet be a sword with another face.
Every individual has some moral sense, partly inherited,
partly acquired, which is stamped upon his personality as
his most noble attribute; and it can never be entirely
effaced, though it may be much marred by ill-usage or
tarnished by exposure to the fumes of an evil atmosphere.
Every one is equipped with some conscience which tells
him in a way admitting of no dispute what he ought to da;
and although it may fail to restrain him from wrongdoing,
nevertheless it fails not to punish by reproaching and con-
demning him.
This sense of duty, which has come to be regarded as a
racial instinct, has, by working atavistically through the
education of centuries, become fixed as a principle which
we say should be supreme over all our actions, leading us
to consider the welfare of others, to ignore ridicule, threats,
bribery, flattery, or even to imperil our lives for others
who are in danger.
Those who have deeply pursued studies in heredity tell
us that the past is profoundly at work in the present,
and that we may expect life and history in the future to be
largely moulded by the vice or virtue, the health or disease,
the normal stability of the nervous system or the neuras-
42 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
thenia of those who are now living, to flow down in a
stream to the generations to come. Every rightly minded
man wishes in his heart to subdue those hereditary tenden-
cies which are defects and imperfections, and to consolidate
and develop within himself and transmit to his descendants
certain high and virtuous social instincts of commanding
importance, such as love, and sympathy, and self-control,
and chivalry toward women, and altruism. This conscience
has been defined as the "vicegerent of God," or, as Byron
says, "The oracle of God." It is a monitor of the actions
of all normal men, preventing the full enjoyment of wrong-
ful deeds and motives, and reproving them when they dis-
obey its voice. By neglecting its monitions one can so
blunt its sensibilities that it becomes functionless, and
may eventually cease to operate in a healthy way; and
when that has occurred he is no longer a desirable mem-
ber of a community, but a menace to that good order
which renders it possible for the human race to live socially
together.
By fanning his desire and stifling his conscience, by the
employment of artificial stimulants and mental trickery, a
man can force himself to enter into pursuits and relation-
ships which, could he but know, he would detest in his an-
cestors. Men do not seem to realize the tremendous impor-
tance of heredity, and that their illegitimate pleasures and
acquired preferences for impure courses are as likely to
crop out in their daughters as in their sons, invariably in
an evil way, sometimes as a surcharge of lustful passion,
sometimes as a directing influence toward vice and crime,
and sometimes as disease; and it is well recognized that
the progeny of the impure have in the domain of their
sexual lives a distinct predilection for morbid tendencies
colored by eroticism.
The lustful impulse which leads a man to seek an agree-
able sensation in an evil environment, which is a social sin
of extreme moment, is entirely incompatible with this
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OP THE SUBJECT. 43
racially implanted principle called conscience upon which
the foundations of all morality rest.
Of course the irresponsible fornicator, who allows his
lower impulses to become fixed characteristics, cannot for a
moment contend that he acts in accordance with true moral-
ity for the benefit of others of the race, nor can he at this
stage realize to what an extent he shatters all the essential
elements of the Law of Hcnior ; for if he did, he would burn
up with shame at the thought of causing so much suffering,
so much agony, so much saturation of 'evil to himself, to
his paramours, to his wife, to his children and their
children, and to society. A decent man, after yielding to
a temptation which he feels to be immoral and base, is im-
pressed with a feeling of personal dissatisfaction, remorse
and shame, and sometimes undergoes such a revulsion of
feeling that he effectually repents.
Our intellectual functions are so far under the control of
the will power that we can by practice largely direct any
selected one as we choose. None is so susceptible, if we
cheat ourselves into so thinking, as this internal tribunal
called conscience, which, by repeated efforts, we may snuff
out and cover with a pall.
As the cicatrix over a wounded surface, for instance an
extensive burn, has an impaired sensitiveness owing to the
destruction of the sensory nerves which normally supply
the skin, so also does an habitually disregarded conscience
lose its sensitiveness and become " seared as with a hot
iron." One of the necessary equipments, then, for a
pleasurable life of lust is a seared conscience, or else one
must suffer the humiliation and remorse which condemn
the man who recognizes such a thing as personal account-
ability.
At the very least, men should exhibit toward women that
same equality of consideration and recognition which is
common among the brutes to their females. And if they but
fully realized the truth, they would deeply reverence their
44 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
women, who, with their more heavenly endowments and
potentiality for motherhood, rightfully occupy the throne
of Nature; and they would protect their mothers' sex with
all their force and sympathy and influence. We main-
tain that the man who dishonors woman by the purchase
of her virtue, by deceit, treachery, savagery, or ruffianism,
falls short of the moral possibilities of the dog.
Travellers in Scotland have the custom, when they climb
to the summit of a mountain, of casting a stone upon the
"cairn," or heap of stones, which one will usually find
there. Thus the pile grows and becomes more imposing.
So by what is to come we hope to add somewhat to the
upbuilding of an important landmark which is forever
prominent in the landscape of every one. It is vain to
hope that improvement in morality will come about spon-
taneously, for truth and knowledge are useful only if
spread broadcast. The medical profession, the true guar-
dians of the public weal, are responsible for the dissemi-
nation of specific information on these matters ; but their
efforts at instruction must necessarily be met by some
concentration of attention on the part of the layman, pref-
erably critical rather than apathetic. While many claim
that these times are not so corrupt as those of past genera-
tions, yet we are suffering for sins which were then com-
mitted, and there is much discouraging reason to believe
that abortions are more frequent, that unprotected women
are more numerous and unsafe, that houses of assignation
and ill-fame are more patronized, that venereal diseases
are more prevalent ; and he who runs may read in the daily
press of our large cities advertisements of charlatans, abor-
tionists, baby-farmers, and even of brothels for sexual
perverts under the disguise of "baths and massage."
Impurity, vice and loathsome disease are brought be-
fore the eyes of even the tenderest and purest boys and
girls by these shocking announcements; and in addition
to this, a reservoir of erotic and subtly dangerous litera-
INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 45
ture has burst forth in a hissing and horrible torrent which
gushes out and threatens the nation, overwhelming such as
are unfortunate in hereditary tendencies or in environment.
A community which will knowingly permit this has the
elements of decay in it. In a quiet and dignified way it
is our duty to discuss this question as man to man, while
to remain silent would be to incur a criminal responsibil-
ity. We cannot pass our fellow-beings by, no matter how
low they have fallen, as if their faces were but mere masks,
but must stop to consider the brotherhood and sisterhood
which exists between us. If any of our readers are hostile,
let us now agree to an armistice all of us being quite fa-
miliar with the customary arguments which are offered in
favor of pursuing the war on women and perchance by the
honorable truce we may be able to elaborate terms of peace.
Otherwise, if we can come to no agreement, if the physi-
cian is to be lightly dubbed a fool, let us separate. But
before we come to our last review, when Death, who al-
ways triumphs, holds his court, when the bugle-call whose
summons none can resist sounds out, let us compare notes
and observe the sum-total of rewards and punishments
which each has earned.
The enemy need no recruits, for their regiments are over-
crowded ; but with some assurance we hope that the strong-
est and fittest and most genuine and manly will eventually
wear the uniform of honor, and cause good principles to
prevail.
If we must separate in disagreement, it is but fair to give
the admonition that the unanimous voice of that observant
profession which alone is qualified to know says that, ir-
respective of the harm you do to others, you are to beware
lest you drink a potion foul as hell, and " fall a victim to
a cureless ruin."
CHAPTEK H.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE.
HUMAN life is divisible physiologically into certain well-
defined stages, separable by tolerably clear lines of demar-
cation. In our march through life toward our graves, each
normal individual, as long as the reproductive glands main-
tain the power of their physiological processes, has an
inherent desire for the perpetuation of the species. This
desire constitutes the sexual instinct.
In order to learn how to live rightly we must understand
ourselves at each stage of the march, lest a deadly blight
settle upon us from which we may not be able to escape,
and lest we become " sin's fools," without the power of per-
petuating healthy offspring.
Time crowds us on from one stage to another, and while
we are yet acting children's parts, a mighty change, a new
birth almost, ushers us into our most important decade,
namely, that period between puberty and maturity.
The stages of human life may properly be described as
seven in number, as follows :
1. Ten lunar, or nine calendar months within the womb,
during which we are not "air-breathers."
2. Infancy, terminating at the time when all the first set
of teeth have appeared, which is usually at the end of
the second year. During this period the child normally
suckles its mother.
3. Childhood, which terminates when the second denti-
tion is completed, i.e., at seven or eight years of age.
4. The period of Boyhood or Girlhood, which terminates
at puberty.
48 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
5. The period of Adolescence, i.e., between puberty and
the full development of manhood or womanhood.
6. The period of mature Manhood or Womanhood, which
lasts more or less indefinitely until
7. Old Age, which is the declining portion of life.
The fifth and sixth periods are characterized by an active
sex-life, with a formal distinction of gender, while the first,
second, third, fourth and seventh periods are expressive
of a passive existence which, to all intents and purposes,
is neuter.
PUBERTY.
If we empirically divide life into epochs of ten years, the
second decade is by far the most important in the formation
of the mental, moral, and physical qualities, early in which
period puberty, or the development of the reproductive
powers, comes on. From this time on, until these func-
tions wane, sexual desire is a physiological appetite,
though it is not fully felt until sexual maturity, when ado-
lescence has passed.
Puberty occurs a year or two later in the male than in
the female. Climate, race, vigor of constitution, heredity
and social conditions have a marked influence on the period
of life at which the earliest active manifestations of sex ap-
pear. Thus it occurs earlier in warm countries and in the
class of society which lives luxuriously than in cold coun-
tries and among the poorer classes.
In temperate climates a girl arrives at puberty at about
the thirteenth, fourteenth, or fifteenth year; while in the
frigid zones it is delayed until the seventeenth, eighteenth,
or even twentieth year ; and in the torrid zones it comes on
as early as the twelfth or thirteenth year, and sometimes
even as early as the eighth year. 1 Climate has, of course,
the same influence on the precocity of boys as it has on
that of girls.
1 Vide Landois and Stirling's "Physiology," p. 112.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 49
Eace plays an important part; thus Jewesses, who belong
to an unmixed people, menstruate at about the same age in
all latitudes, i.e., at fourteen or fifteen years of age. Com-
mingling of races develops a mean; thus Eurasians, or
Anglo-Indians, i.e., half-castes with European fathers and
Hindoo mothers, arrive at puberty earlier than pure Euro-
peans and later than pure Hindoos.
Heredity does much to influence the age at which pubes-
cence is reached ; thus, some families are notably precocious
or notably tardy in development.
The state of the general health exerts a powerful influ-
ence ; thus, if a child is suffering with any wasting or de-
bilitating disease, or if pressed too hard by study, puberty
is apt to be retarded and disordered. It is said that city-
bred children arrive at puberty about a year earlier than
country children.
Until about the age of puberty, girls and boys are simply
children, who in innocence play unrestrictedly together.
The girls are at birth a little smaller than the boys, but
at puberty they shoot ahead in both stature and weight,
and with these changes in the body are associated corre-
sponding changes in the mind, habits and inclinations,
which are the signs of an earlier maturity in them. Until
this change occurs there are no notable functional or psychi-
cal differences between the sexes, but the girls and boys
associate intimately without any sensual ideas or longings,
with their voices pitched in the same key, and with no
marked dissimilarity of their skeletal structures.
Heretofore the whole energy of their minds and bodies
has been directed toward "acquisition," and they are not
" productive" in either thoughts or works. In each other's
presence they are frank and simple, and are without any
marked feeling of modesty or coyness. What gallantry
the boy shows before this time is probably due to his edu-
cation rather than to his natural tendencies, and what
"blushing timidity" the girl displays is also more the
50 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
result of external influences than of natural promptings.
Though the boy is naturally more boisterous, and the girl
more bashful, modest and shy, yet so far they are prac-
tically generis neutrins, neither male nor female, without
any sexual impressions, and they have hardly entered
within the portals of real life.
But now the greatest physiological era in their lives, next
to that of birth, is about to raise a natural barrier between
them, and send them along well-defined roads diverging to
manhood and womanhood. During this critical period,
when life is yet young, they are initiated into new loves,
new emotions, and even a new type of body ; they are yet
plastic, and good or evil habits are more likely to become
fixed upon them now, and in the next few succeeding years,
than at any other time in their lives. From now on the
similarity between the sexes rapidly disappears ; their un-
differentiated sexual characteristics become strongly mas-
culine or strongly feminine, and the psychical differences
are even more distinctly developed than the bodily
changes. These contrasts between the sexes come on
gradually, and several years of adolescence are required
before the sexual types of body are clearly defined, while
even a longer time is expended in the evolution of the mas-
culine and feminine types of intellect. 1
It is well recognized that this is a critical period, during
which the hereditary influences for health or disease, for
good or bad tendencies, for insanity or mental equilibrium,
are most felt, and at this time especially, as Clouston says,
"a man may fall a victim to his grandfather's excesses."
The change in the female is more profound than in the
male, and the bodily disturbance of greater intensity ; so
much so, that few girls pass through this period without
1 " Male and female children resemble each other closely, like the
young of so many other animals in which the adult sexes differ
widely ; they likewise resemble'the mature female much more closely
than the mature male. " Darwin, " Descent of Man, " p. 557,
PHYSIOLOGY OP THE SEXUAL LIFE. 51
marked constitutional derangements, or some of the multi-
form types of hysteria. Woman plays the more important
sexual role in Nature, being more complex in physical
structure, as well as in mental and moral organization.
She conceives, gives birth to, and rears every individual,
while man is very much less concerned in the perpetuation
of the race.
A woman's faculties physical, moral and intellectual
are more profoundly influenced and controlled by her sexual
functions than are those of man, she being by far more
subservient to her corporeal condition ; and there are few
diseases which affect her without having a reciprocal effect
on her sexual organs, and vice versa. Thus, during the
thirty years of her reproductive life, or distinctive sex-life,
the utero-ovarian functions dominate her career, and both
influence and are influenced by every vital process.
Compared with woman, man's reproductive organs have
a more subordinate effect on his organization ; and yet,
if the functions of these are abused, his life may be
embittered by mental and physical disorders which make
him a fit object of study for the alienist and pathologist.
We must consider a little more fully the distinctive changes
which occur in the boy and in the girl with the accession
of puberty.
Changes in the Male. Before puberty the boy is normally
entirely free from all sexual thoughts or impressions. The
small and ill-developed penis is covered with an elongated
prepuce, and the testicles are very slightly sensitive to
pressure. But at puberty there is a determination of
blood to the generative organs, so that the penis, testicles
and scrotum enlarge, and semen, with its accessory fluids,
is secreted, and there then occurs an unmistakable mani-
festation of the sexual instinct. Not infrequently the
mammary glands enlarge at the time of puberty and be-
come sensitive to the pressure of the clothing, and in rare
cases they secrete milk. The voice is characteristically
52 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
altered, so that the " thin, childish treble becomes a deep,
manly bass" ; this is due to the growth of the thyroid car-
tilage ("Adam's apple"), which becomes prominent, and to
the lengthening of the vocal chords, so that the voice be-
comes hoarse, or husky, and " breaks" until it falls a full
octave in its register.
A coarser hair takes the place of the " down" on the
pubes, face, chest, arms, legs, axillae and other parts of
the body, and the sebaceous glands develop and become
active, especially on the nose, back and face.
These changes succeed one another so slowly that full
sexual vigor is not attained until adolescence has passed.
From puberty onward, all through the sexual life, sper-
matozoa are constantly being formed in the testicles, and
emissions of semen occur physiologically from time to
time. Gradually the type of mind and body assumes the
manly features, and at twenty-five years of age the male
may be considered as sexually mature.
Changes in the Female. The transition from girlhood to
womanhood occurs with a bound, so that the female under-
goes the sexual alteration several years before the male.
In her the changes in the bodily structure and in the func-
tions of the whole system are vastly more complex and
important.
Vascularization, or the increase of blood supply to her
internal and external generative organs, is of course more
abundant and lavish than in the male, because of the greater
area to be supplied and the greater importance of the func-
tions of the uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries and breasts.
At this time the skeleton and contour of the body become
modified and assume the characteristic feminine appear-
ance. The hips become broader for the requirements of
childbirth ; the breasts notably increase in size and become
prepared to secrete milk ; the sebaceous glands become more
active, as in the boy ; coarse hair grows over the pubes and
in the axillae ; the chest increases rapidly in size, with a cor-
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 53
responding increase of vital capacity ; the larynx becomes
elongated, and there is an increased compass of voice,
though it is not lowered in its register, nor does it
" break" as in the boy, but becomes more liquid, musical,
tender and gentle. She becomes more shy before the
opposite sex, her romping tendency is subdued, and her
whole " form and expression assume the characteristic sex-
ual appearance, while the psychical energies also receive an
impulse." J
The most important occurrence of all, however, is the
periodical occurrence of menstruation, whose most marked
phenomenon is a sanguineous discharge from the genitals,
normally occurring at intervals of a lunar month twenty-
eight days.
This menstruation signifies that the woman is capable of
reproduction or child-bearing. Beginning, on the average,
soon after fourteen years of age, it continues until the
"change of life," or "menopause," or "climacteric," i.e.,
until about forty -four years of age, and it is, in health, in-
terrupted only by pregnancy and lactation (suckling). 2
If menstruation begin earlier it ends earlier, and vice
versa, so that the child-bearing period of a woman's life,
or her distinctive sex-life, lasts about thirty years, though
in hot countries it is shorter.
Each woman usually has a definite periodicity in her
menstruation, the common interval from the beginning of
one menstrual period to the beginning of the next being
the " twenty -eight-day type," though some menstruate
every thirty days, a few every twenty -one days, and fewer
still every twenty-seven days. When a girl starts to men-
struate there is complete uncertainty as to what the type
will be, though when once fully established it remains
pretty constant.
The amount of blood lost averages from six to eight
1 Landois and Stirling's "Physiology," p. 113.
Vide Hart and Barbour's "Gynaecology."
64 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ounces, though sometimes it may normally be only two
or three ounces, or sometimes twelve or fourteen ounces.
The discharge usually lasts from two to six days, and is
usually more profuse in blondes than in brunettes.
Menstruation is by no means merely a monthly flow of
blood from the genitals. As Matthews Duncan of Edin-
burgh well said, "The red flag at the auctioneer's door
shows that something more important is going on inside."
And so also the flow of blood proves to be but an incident
of menstruation, and not at all the important factor ovu-
lation, or the formation of eggs, being the peculiar and
interesting event.
In viviparous animals there is a condition similar to that
of menstruation in women, but in them it is called the
"heat" ("rutting" in deer). Usually this season of
"heat" in animals occurs but once a year, and at other
times the females neither admit the males, nor could they
become pregnant if they did. Domestication with its arti-
ficialities of diet and temperature has made the recurrence
of this phenomenon uncertain in some of our animals. 1
1 " Every month or season of the year is the pairing season of one
or another mammalian species. But notwithstanding this apparent
irrregularity, the pairing-time of every species is bound by an un-
failing law : it sets in earlier or later, according as the period of ges-
tation lasts longer or shorter, so that the young may be born at the
time when they are most likely to survive. . . . Thus, the bat pairs
in January and February ; the wild camel in the desert to the east
of Lake Lob-nor, from the middle of January nearly to the end of
February ; the canis Azarce and the Indian bison in winter ; the
wildcat and the fox, in February ; the weazel, in March ; the kulan,
from May to July ; the musk-ox, at the end of August, and, in
Asiatic Russia, in September or October ; the wild yak in Thibet,
in September; the reindeer in Norway, at the end of September;
the badger, in October ; the Capra pyrenaica, in November ; the
chamois, the musk-deer, and the orongo-antelope, in November and
December ; the wolf, from the end of December to the middle of
February." Westermarck, "History of Human Marriage," pp.
25, 26.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 55
A woman when she is menstruating cannot be said to
have a "mens sana in corpore sano," and is thus physically
unfitted for the active pursuits followed by men. Before
menstruation begins there is a feeling of mental irritation
and lassitude, fatigue in the lower limbs, congestion in the
back, loins and lower abdominal region, sensitiveness on
pressure over the abdomen, feelings of heat and cold, dis-
orders of appetite and digestion, and various other sys-
temic disturbances. '
The principal event in menstruation is the maturation
and rupture of a Graafian follicle, the discharge of an
ovum, or egg, from one of the ovaries, and its passage
along one of the Fallopian tubes to the cavity of the uterus.
If the ovum is fertilized by the male reproductive element,
or spermatozoid, it finds lodgment in the uterus and de-
velops into a f ostus ; if not fertilized, it passes off unnoticed
in the menstrual discharge.
A woman is more liable to conceive immediately after
her menstrual period has passed ; but it is most important
to remember that conception may occur at any time during
the thirty years of her menstrual life, and that fornication
can never be indulged in without the risk of impregnation.
Each " monthly sickness" is in reality a sort of mimic
parturition or missed pregnancy ; childbirth being physi-
ologically the aim and object of a woman's life, for which,
though it may not be accomplished, Nature is nevertheless
constantly striving. The sexual impress is thus seen to be
stamped upon womankind as a much more powerful factor
in their lives than in men's, though we must be careful to
avoid confusing the word "sexual" with "sensual."
1 "While a man may be said, at all events relatively, to live on a
plane, a woman always lives on the upward or downward slope of a
curve. This is a fact of the very first importance in the study of
physiological or psychological phenomena in women. Unless we
always bear it in mind we cannot attain to any true knowledge of
the physical, mental, or moral life of women. " Havelock Ellis,
"Man and Woman," p. 248.
66 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
To bear in mind the tender graces of women, their beauty
and delicacy, their susceptible and responsive mental na-
tures, their trustful and confiding love, their mission of
motherhood with the subsequent rearing of the children,
their heavenly influence over our lives, their unfitness to
meet us on a common level in the battle of life, must
influence every warm-hearted man to ever treat them
with chivalry and veneration, to protect their honor, and
to oppose their degradation and downfall with all his
power.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE REPRODUCTIVE GLANDS ON THE
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL.
As a proof that it is the sexual organs whose growth and
development produce the most profound dynamic changes
in the physical and mental qualities of males and females,
it is only necessary to refer to those cases in which either
the ovaries or testicles have been early removed, or where
they have been congenitally deficient, or vitiated in their
functions before maturity ; in which case the sex of the in-
dividual becomes so distorted that it tends to assume the
physical and psychical type of the opposite sex. Castra-
tion or premature senility in girls gives them a masculine
quality of voice, and while affixing to them many of the
coarser male characteristics deprives them of the typical
feminine attributes. Similarly, if an undeveloped male is
emasculated the secondary sexual characteristics fail to
appear, so that he does not display the superior size and
muscular development, the depth of chest, the pugnacity, or
courage, or ruggedness which the virile man does. Famil-
iar to us all are the mental and physical differences which
exist between the youth and the old man; the girl and the
woman who has passed the "change of life"; the potent
and impotent man ; the castrated man and the man in pos-
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 57
session of his testicles ; the bull and the steer ; the gelding
and the stallion, etc. etc.
With the precocious development of the testicles in boys
i.e., earlier than the usual time of puberty there is a
rapid growth of body to the manly type, with hair on the
pubes and face, roughness of voice, and unusual stature;
while, on the contrary, eunuchs are natural slaves and
cowards, unsuited for the pursuit of war, unfitted to be the
guardians of undegraded women, and weak in every element
of their moral natures.
At his master's bidding the eunuch unfeelingly executes
the harshest punishments on others, being without mercy
or consideration, and utterly lacking the finer sensibilities
of either the masculine or feminine type. 1
The eunuch, as seen in Constantinople for instance, is at
1 " Pope Clement XIV., in the eighteenth century, abolished castra-
tion of youths, which was then practised in Italy for the purpose of
retaining the soprano voice. It is well known that the castrated
preserve the shrill voice (voix aigue) of infancy, at the same time
that the chest becomes fully developed, thus giving volume to the
voice. Women were not allowed to sing in the cathedral or church
services ; hence this horrid mutilation, as it qualified the victims to
sing soprano parts. " Acton on the Reproductive Organs, p. 219.
"In castrated persons, however, the larynx remains puerile, al-
though perhaps slightly larger than in women. The old Italian cus-
tom of castrating boys to preserve their youthful singing voices
bears witness to the close connection between the voice and the or-
gans of sex. Delaunay remarks that while a bass need not fear any
kind of sexual or other excess so far as his voice is concerned, a tenor
must be extremely careful and temperate. Among prostitutes, it
may be added, the evolution of the voice and of the larynx tends to
take a masculine direction. This fact, which is fairly obvious, has
been accurately investigated at Genoa by Professor Masini, who finds
that among 50 prostitutes 29 showed in a high degree the deep
masculine, voice, while the larynx was large and the vocal chords
resembled those of man; only 6 out of the 50 showed a normal
larynx ; while of 20 presumably honest women, only 2 showed the
ample masculine larynx. "Ha velock Ellis, "Man and Woman,"
p. 237.
58 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
once recognizable by his peculiarities, which may be briefly
summarized as follows : he is taller than the average man,
though not powerful; his countenance is distinctive; the
chest is narrow ; the hips are broad ; the gait is peculiar,
owing to the feminine tendency to knock-knee ; the voice is
shrill, inclining to falsetto, and about an octave above the
masculine register ; the face and pubes are almost devoid
of hair; the skin is delicate; the penis is small and
shrivelled, and the disposition is harsh, unmerciful, and
servile. They age rapidly, and then become thin and ter-
ribly wrinkled.
On the other hand, among certain women, especially pros-
titutes, whose sexual glands have been destroyed or much
damaged by disease, it is not rare to find real viragoes,
i.e., women who have the masculine physique, voice,
strength, quality of mind, pugnacity, etc.
Thus we see that complete or partial deficiency in the
generative functions brings about a strong resemblance to
the characteristic type of the opposite sex, and invariably
in a manner which excites disgust and contempt.
The same peculiarities which are observable in castrated
animals apply to evirated men, making them deficient in
virile sports and occupations, lazy, good-for-nothing indi-
viduals contented with their lot, utterly indifferent to the
society of the opposite sex, of no force morally or mentally,
and of course lacking the intelligence to be discontented
with their doom.
It is thus evident that none of our functions should be
more carefully conserved than those of the generic sphere,
for, irrespective of complete effemination or eviration, any
impairment or vitiation, or loss of power, or excess of ac-
tivity in them, unquestionably produces a most profound
effect on the physical and cerebral processes, invariably in
a fearfully undesirable manner.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 59
THE CAKE OF THE PUBESCENT CHILD.
To understand the changes which occur at puberty and
the tendencies inherent in the young of both sexes at this
period is of the utmost importance, though few practical
subjects are so much neglected by parents, teachers and
physicians as the deportment of children at the most im-
pressionable epoch of their lives.
At puberty the child's imagination is certain to become
active; and peculiar emotions and susceptibilities arise
which tend to draw it toward evil. Lacking at this early
age the balance-wheel of reflection to control it, the child,
unless carefully instructed, is in no little danger of falling
a victim to the teachings of evil companions and many
other deleterious influences.
So when a youth arrives at puberty, unless he have a
powerful moral mentor in his conscience, his thoughts
naturally tend to lead him to sensual vices, than which
nothing is more degrading and brutalizing.
The older we grow the more we must realize how impor-
tant it is to start out aright, and to 136 prudent when one
is yet young; for when a person is matured, and perhaps
acclimatized to a corrupting environment, it can hardly
ever be expected that he shall materially alter either in his
manner of life or ideas. To preach wisdom to the old
perhaps the prematurely old is almost a thankless task;
it may convince them, but life-long habits are hard to
change. Therefore the great aim should be to educate the
individual when he is yet young.
For children of these tender years to listen very keenly
to the appeals of morality merely for morality's sake is
exceptional, though an immense influence can be exercised
by telling them that it is base and degrading to tamper
with their private parts in any way whatsoever, and that
the sin of disobeying this injunction will surely betray
60 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
itself in their faces and manners, and prevent their full
development into a splendid manhood.
At puberty a marked physiological thrill is imparted to
the child ; and no person, however prudish, can deny that
sexuality is the factor which gives origin to feelings,
emotions and imaginations which display themselves in
characteristic fashion in persons of either sex, usually to
a hyperbolic degree. "This awakening into intense
activity of such vast tracts of encephalic tissue [brain
tissue] , though provided for in the evolution of the organ,
does not take place without much risk of disturbance to
its [the child's] mental functions, especially where there
is an inherited predisposition in that direction." '
We must especially bear in mind that, as (Houston says,
new areas of brain tissue " vast tracts" of it are called
into activity at the time of puberty, and that vitiation in
the genital zone necessarily results in physical and ethical
defect in the cerebral structures and functions. Every
fibre in the body feels and shows the impulse of the
change; and so great is the disturbance sometimes, when
young people are attaining their sexual equipment, that
a well-marked "insanity of pubescence," or Hebephrenia,
is recognized. This disturbance of the functions of the
brain is usually depressing in character, often assuming a
suicidal tendency, or sometimes giving an erotic coloring
to life. 2
1 T. S. Clouston, M.D., F.R.C.P., Edinburgh Medical Journal,
1880-81, p. 5.
2 " Puberty being a travail of transition during which new sensa-
tions, new emotions, new ideas spring up, it is inevitably attended
with some disturbance of the mental equilibrium, and sometimes,
where that is unstable because of an hereditary strain of weakness,
with a complete overthrow of it. The new-coming feelings and
impulses have to find and make their adjustments within and with-
out, and until they have done that they occasion much subjective
unrest of a vague, yearning kind blind longings and cravings,
undefined aspirations, tremulous pantings for the unknown, large
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 61
In those very frequent cases of pubescent insanity which
are accompanied by masturbation we must recognize that
the self-abuse is often as much a symptom as a cause of
the insanity. Some children get to be "pitiful mind
wrecks" at this period of life, partly through their own
errors, partly on account of their vicious hereditary ten-
dencies, and very largely on account of the lack of a proper
education which would teach them self-control. But in
every pubescent child, a certain derangement of the emo-
tions and disquiet of mind may be confidently looked for.
In addition to the mental disturbances, many of the bodily
ailments which afflict a child are in reality nothing but the
accompaniments of puberty. This is more commonly true
in relation to the female sex, because the girl suddenly
blossoms into a woman, the change transforming her whole
nature in a short period of time, and because the feminine
reproductive functions are vastly more pervasive in their
physical influence on woman in proportion to her more im-
portant sexual role in nature. Periodicity is the law with
women, and it must necessarily disturb the equilibrium
of their systems once every lunar month, unless they are
pregnant or suckling ; and any irregularity or suppression
of this function, instead of being a relief, is a marked and
sure cause of systemic derangement.
In growing children of both sexes, at about the age of
puberty, not only is the blood richer in the elements of fibrin
and red blood-corpuscles, but the circulation is also more
vigorous, so that there are apt to be congestions of various
organs, relief from which is afforded by the familiar nose-
bleeds of children. These nose-bleeds are more common
and vague enthusiasms, accompanied by a dreamy sadness, a brood-
ing want, a not altogether unpleasing melancholy. The thrill of the
infinite in the individual has somehow to make its accommodations
to the finite. So it comes to pass that out of the dim, formless
yearnings there spring up ideal forms in the domain of love or
religion. "Henry Maudsley, " Pathology of the Mind, " p. 387.
62 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
in boys, for menstruation more or less takes its place in
girls ; but if this phenomenon fails to operate in the latter,
there is then not infrequently a "vicarious menstruation,"
i.e., relief is afforded by hemorrhages from other organs
for instance, from the lungs, stomach, bowels, nose, etc.
In normal children, as previously observed, there ia
before puberty an entire freedom from any ideas about
sexual affairs ; but it is a well-known fact, based on obser-
vation, that many very young children take to handling
of the genitals with very apparent satisfaction of some
sort. Nurses frequently have a most pernicious custom of
quieting children by manipulation of their genitals; and
thus, perhaps several years before puberty, the little ones
get into the habit of practising auto-stimulation without
in the least appreciating its moral or physical wickedness.
Others are led to masturbation by some local irritation ;
as from a too long or too tight foreskin, worms in the rec-
tum, haemorrhoids, fissure of the anus, intolerable itching
about the anus or vulva, accumulation of a cheesy sub-
stance smegma beneath the foreskin, or, in short, by any
cause which produces congestion or inflammation in the
genital zone. To prevent attention to these parts it is
often necessary for the physician to obviate any abnormal
conditions which may be present in children of either sex,
e.g., to relieve constipation, to allay the intense itching,
to dislodge the worms from the rectum, and, in the case of
boys, to practise circumcision. With any line of treatment
the child must in addition be early taught self-mastery and
self-reliance.
The time of puberty and the next few succeeding years
are supereminently important as constituting the formative
and critical period of life ; for habits and the general trend
of the mind get their motif then, and the individual hardly
ever materially changes thereafter, at least in his tendencies
and sexual enthusiasms. The sensations which are experi-
enced at this time compel the attention of the mind; and
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 63
though they may at first be vague and indefinite, yet be-
fore long the new influence of the reproductive energy
promotes unmistakable feelings which, unless controlled,
may lead to various forms of illicit gratification.
Teachers and parents, culpably ignorant themselves, too
often treat children as though they had no sexual organs at
all; being all too content if they advance well in their
studies. But assuredly they practise the most pernicious
prudery by not looking for and anticipating those influences
which so often lead pubescent young people astray to the
ruin of their bodies and characters. Evil practices are
exceedingly apt to be learned if these matters are left to
Nature and to the child's companions for settlement; for
in most schools masturbation and other forms of vice are
actually cultivated by that portion of the scholars who are
viciously inclined, and who, unfortunately, do the most
talking.
Through inheritance some children are congenitally lack-
ing in ethical ideas, and for such the wisest educational
measures are urgently called for. Self-control is what the
child needs to be taught, for by yielding to impulse and
vice the very structure of the brain eventually becomes
altered. In fact, many an insane patient is where he is
because of yielding to his fancies, and is thus directly re-
sponsible for his condition. Every individual naturally has
good and bad instincts, and the sexual passion often gives
a coloring especially to those which are evil. All these
vicious tendencies act more powerfully in perversely in-
clined children, partly because their self-control is weaker,
and partly because they have abused their sexual natures,
while perverse heredity is very probably also operating in
them. Very plainly, then, the parent or teacher who fails
to realize that some of the children have sexual natures
inclining to perversity makes almost a criminal error; and
in view of this his position should always be one of watch-
ful expectancy. To leave a child to find out the secrets of
64 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
his sexual nature unaided is the gravest and most cruel
mistake. If this be left to accident, or if the child be
abandoned to the false teachings of his wicked school-
mates, then onanism with all its injurious effects is almost
sure to follow; and the wrong information which he may
have received, or the erroneous conclusions which he may
have conceived, may direct him into the most darksome
paths and to irreparable injury.
Children are notoriously imitative and peculiarly sus-
ceptible to the force of example, and consequently the
greatest care should be taken to help them to form good
associations. The boys must be watched for evidences of
a tendency to effeminacy, or a fondness for girlish games,
and the girls must be influenced against too great an en-
thusiasm for boyish sports and the danger of being " tom-
boys." Above all, the boys and girls must be encouraged
to exercise sociability and to mix freely with the opposite
sex.
We must in addition recognize at the time of puberty a
strong and peculiar impressionability, and also that the
early sexual excitations and lustful sensations are apt to
imprint a lasting influence on the child's mind "impera-
tive concepts." The impressions produced by the inten-
sity of feeling of the sexual organisms are much deeper than
most other impressions, and the mental images then pic-
tured in the memory may, and probably will, excite lustful
feelings, through the association of ideas, when they are
recalled, suggested, or reproduced, even without actual
stimulation of the sexual areas.
Most mature readers will, upon due reflection, appre-
ciate that in their sexual dream-life their imaginations are
tinctured by or revolve around some particular concept, or
that they are erotically responsive to some pretty regular
and ever-recurring line of action.
Furthermore, most men are enthusiastic, to a greater or
less extent, and become sexually excited in their dreams
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 65
and also when awake about some particular feminine
quality, or article of feminine apparel, or peculiar situa-
tion; which enthusiasm, being incomprehensible to other
men, is a personal secret that is carefully kept hidden.
These various enthusiasms or mind-pictures, each of which
is of importance only to the particular individual, can
usually be referred back for their origins to the time of
puberty when the special concepts were closely associated
with the first emissions or with the first pleasurable sexual
feelings.
Especially bear in mind, then, that the first strong sexual
impressions which are felt by the pubescent child are apt
to become burned into his nature, and that the accessory
factors which caused the lustful feeling, or which were
prominently connected with it, are, through the association
of ideas and reminiscences, forever after liable to guide his
fancy to such a degree that a visual perception, or even a
recollection of the same concept which excited him origi-
nally, will excite him hereafter.
To recognize that these tendencies exist is to be fore-
warned in helping the pubescent child to gain a mastery
over impulses which might develop into grave perversions.
Few realize, unless their attention is specially called to it,
how deep and lasting are these mental associations formed
during adolescence. Without understanding these tenden-
cies, men go throughout life blindly, not appreciating their
sexual likes and dislikes, or their motives, or the signifi-
cance of the mental stains from which those suffer who
pollute the very source from which true manhood neces-
sarily comes.
THE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS.
It is important to distinguish certain well-marked sexual
features in both males and females which are known as the
Primary and Secondary Sexual Characters.
A man's primary sexual characters aro represented by
66 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
his genital organs, and centre round the production of sper-
matozoa and the function of impregnation; a woman's
primary sexual characters centre round her genital organs,
the production of ova, and the development and birth of
the foetus.
The Primary Sexual Characters are, of course, those that
pertain to the sexual organs themselves and to their func-
tions, and naturally they are the most pronounced of all the
sexual attributes.
As accessories to these leading sexual features are the
Secondary Sexual Characters, which comprise all those at-
tributes of body and mind not directly related to the sexual
organs proper, but which nevertheless are distinctive and
constitute notable differences between the sexes.
As Darwin has so well shown, these secondary sexual
characters help the males to fight for, or to court the sexual
favor of the females ; for instance, the horns of the stag and
the spurs of the cock are weapons which their owners use
against male rivals of their own species, and the strongest
gains the consent of the female, who, quietly awaiting the
issue, bestows her favors on the victor. So also the func-
tion of the lion's mane is to serve partly as a weapon of
defence for the protection of his neck, but chiefly as a mark
of beauty to attract the female.
Male birds usually effect their conquests, as Darwin
further shows, 7 by peaceful means, such as the melodious-
ness of their singing and the gaudiness of their plumage ;
e.g., the canary cock's singing, the cock's comb, the tail of
the bird-of-paradise, and the superior brilliancy of all male
birds.
The secondary sexual characters do not appear in ani-
mals until they have arrived at an age when they are ca-
pable of reproduction; and as a rule the females are not
gaudily and showily equipped, because of their greater
necessity of protection from beasts of prey. At the rutting
"'The Descent of Man," "The Origin of Species."
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 67
season, when the sexual vigor is at its maximum, the plu-
mage is gaudiest, the fur the handsomest, the horns the
largest, the voice the loudest, the scent-glands the most
odoriferous, and all the sexual characters the most- pro-
nounced. " Flowers and the songs of birds are the tokens
of the reproductive transport of nature, flowers being the
dress of love, and the songs of birds love-songs. Men find
these very beautiful in themselves, and think of them as
specially designed to gratify their senses. But is it not
that they are beautiful, by secret sympathy of being, be-
cause they are expressions of the generative energy of
nature in which men share? And most felt of beautiful in
spring, when the sympathy of a common thrill is active."
Botanists tell us that cross-fertilization is necessary for
the reproduction of plants, they having separate sexes like
the animals. Some plants are wind-fertilized, and some
are visited by insects, the object being in either case an
assurance that the pollen, or male elements, shall be car-
ried, either by the wind, or water, or insects, from the
anthers of one plant to the stigma, or female structure, of
another. Flowers which are dependent on the agency of
the wind for the scattering of their pollen are never gayly
colored, and " beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and
beasts, in order that the fruit may be devoured and the
manured seeds disseminated." 2
Animals and plants have not been created beautiful in
order to delight man, but for sexual reasons, in order to
compel sexual conjunction, upon which the future of every
species depends. 3
1 Maudsley, " Pathology of the Mind, " p. 131.
3 Darwin, "Origin of Species," p. 161.
3 "If beautiful objects had been created solely for man's gratifica-
tion, it ought to be shown that before man appeared there was less
beauty on the face of the earth than since he came on the stage.
Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and
the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, creat-
ed that man might ages afterward admire them in his cabinet?
68 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
All throughout the organic world these secondary sexual
characteristics play a most prominent role ; and the same
laws of course govern mankind, because zoologically we are
of that world, even though at the top of the scale.
In man we of course note as secondary sexual characters
the greater size and strength of his body, his beard, the
hair on his chest, arms and legs, his rougher voice, his
masterful mind, and the natural aggressiveness in his
wooing; while we note the superior grace and delicacy of
a woman's every movement, her gentler and more musical
voice, her crown of superabundant hair, her prominent
breasts and wider hips, and, in short, the adaptation of
her whole body for her highest function of motherhood.
Of the two sexes it is thus evident that the female is by
far the more distinctly sexual, and that the state of her
mind and body is more dependent on her corporeal condi-
tion. She assumes the complacent role normally, and is
by nature chaste ; though intensely sexual, she is not nat-
urally sensual.
NUBILITY. 1
By nubility we mean " the quality or state of being nubile
or marriageable." As we have observed, the girl reaches
the marriageable age sooner than the boy. A girl of
twelve years of age about equals a boy of fifteen, as far as*
the growth of the body determines maturity ; and a girl of
fifteen nearly equals a boy of nineteen. At eighteen years
of age a girl has usually attained her full stature, and
socially is fully the equal of a young man of twenty-one
years.
Along with these physical changes there are correspond-
Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of
the diatomaceae ; were these created that they might be examined
and admired under the higher powers of the microscope?" Darwin,
"Origin of Species," pp. 160, 161.
1 Nubo to M marry. "
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 69
ing changes in the minds and social inclinations of the girls
which indicate their earlier maturity.
Normally, a woman is capable of entering upon her re-
productive functions at twenty-one years of age, being fully
matured and having attained perfect physical development.
If she enter upon marriage before her full development
there is a tendency to abortion and difficult childbirth.
The reproductive power further implies, in addition to
bringing forth the child, the capacity to supply nourish-
ment (milk) . While a girl of sixteen, seventeen, or eigh-
teen years of age could do this, yet a woman of twenty-
one forms a far better wet-nurse, and is even better adapted
for this function at twenty -two or twenty -four years of age.
If a woman be too young when she enters upon the pro-
cess of reproduction, the breasts are not fully developed,
and she may run short of milk in six months or less ; and, fur-
ther, she is not psychically developed, and is consequently
unfit for motherhood.
In the male sex, adolescence lasts on the average until
twenty-five years of age, before which time there is not the
full development of the manly type. " A young man who
marries before his beard is fully grown breaks a law of
nature and sins against posterity" (Clouston). Besides
the responsibility of procreating healthy children, marriage
further entails the exercise of the manifold parental duties.
The undeveloped young man who squanders his semen
commits a physiological sin which is manifested by an im-
perfect development of the mind and lack of consolidation
in the physique ; and certainly the functions of the testi-
cles, upon which the evolution of the manly type wholly
depends, should be the very last to be trifled with.
"Women may be advised to marry not earlier than
twenty-one between twenty-one and twenty-eight when
in our climate they are best fitted to become wives and
mothers. Men had better wait until between twenty-eight
and thirty -five before they undertake the responsibilities
70 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
of being parents. " However, if circumstances permit, it
is undeniably physiological to marry soon after full ma-
turity has been reached.
THE CIIMACTEEIC.
The sexual life of both men and women continues until
the climacteric, which is a momentous change, or crisis, in
the lives of individuals, when the balance between tissue-
waste and restitution is disordered. After this event the
individual is in the afternoon of life and is again sexless
from a physiological standpoint. 2
This physiological change comes on quite abruptly in
women sometime between the forty-second and fiftieth
years, with the heaviest figures in the forty-fourth year. In
men it is gradual and longer deferred, occurring, as a rule,
somewhere between the fiftieth and sixty -fifth year, though
the effects of the change are by no means so clearly appre-
ciable in them as in women. As a rule, the male reproduc-
tive elements, or spermatozoa, disappear from the semen
at about the sixty-second year, though the individual may
be quite able to copulate satisfactorily for some years more.
Exceptionally the virile power remains with men even to the
most advanced age ; but women, almost without exception,
'Reginald Southey, Quain's "Dictionary of Medicine," p. 378.
2 " When the animal kingdom is surveyed from a broad standpoint
it becomes obvious that the ovum, or its correlative the spermato-
zoon, is the goal of an individual existence : that life is a cycle be-
ginning in an ovum and coming round to an ovum again. The
greater part of the actions which, looking from a near point of view
at the higher animals alone, we are apt to consider as eminently the
purposes for which animals come into existence, when viewed from
the distant outlook whence the whole living world is surveyed, fade
away into the likeness of the mere by-play of ovum-bearing organ-
isms. The animal body is in reality a vehicle for ova ; and after
the life of the parent has become potentially renewed in the off spring,
the body remains as a cast-off envelope whose future is but to die."
-Foster, "Text-Book of Physiology, "p. 720.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 71
are sterile before they have reached the fiftieth year. With
the completion of the functions of sperm-formation by the
male, and of ovulation, or egg-formation, by the female,
their sexual lives become forever closed.
Such is the history of life ! At first a neuter ; then a
rapid growth and development of the body with sexuality
as the distinguishing and fashioning feature; then the
maturation and expansion of the physical and psychical
endowments ; then the reproductive period, followed by that
of quiescence and old age, when
"... Years steal
Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb ;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim." *
1 Byron, " Childe Harold, " canto hi.
CHAPTEK in.
A PROPER CALCULATION OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY
FROM THE PERSONAL STANDPOINT.
"They bore as heroes, but they felt as men." POPE.
A LARGE number of men seemingly adopt as their rule
in life the "Greatest Happiness Principle," loving them-
selves, as a routine, with an overweight of devotion ; and yet
most of them would feel a deep personal dissatisfaction if
they failed to conform to their interpretation of the " Law
of Honor."
The imputation of selfishness or utilitarianism is highly
offensive to every one, for all acts which are considered
noble are characteristically unselfish; and in every com-
munity, civilized or aboriginal, motives are praised only
when they are disinterested, and condemned when selfish.
Thus the tribal and social ideas which everywhere pre-
vail regard selfishness as the most ill-sounding of words
and undesirable of qualities. However, self-love is always
strongly asserting itself by a natural law whose force it is
idle to deny, though some by strength of will succeed in
concealing it, and others live it down by the nobility of
their lives. ' But however much selfishness is the natural
equipment of man, it is nevertheless a comfort to reflect
that one cannot be false to others if true to himself. " Self-
love is not despicable, but laudable, since duties to self, if
self-perfecting as true duties to self are must needs be
duties to others." 8
1 "A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than
he loves himself." Darwin, "Descent of Man," p. 70.
'Maudsley, "Body and Will," p. 166.
74 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Self-love is assuredly very largely the principle of our
actions, but
" Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self -neglect ing." l
The Ego, or reflective consciousness of the individual,
constantly asserts itself by desiring to take an active part
in the joys and delights which its possessor may give to
others, and to a certain extent it is laudable to make this
the principle of our actions, since it can result in no harm
to others while yet harmonizing with the law of self-pres-
ervation.
But we shall see that the lusting man must be emi-
nently selfish, thinking to enjoy himself and benefit him-
self at the expense of earth's tenderest and sweetest
creatures; that he heeds not the results of his pleasure-
seeking; that he violates his mother's sex, juggles with
the possibilities of paternity, transmits disease to his wife
and posterity, outrages without conscience all rational
moral laws, and seeks self -enjoyment as his highest aim
in life. Like the ancient school of Greek philosophers
who maintained the hedonistic 2 doctrine that the pursuit
of pleasure for the moment is the highest good, and that a
man should direct his pleasures as he chooses rather than
be restrained by his will, these men take no account of the
welfare of others, but are in their feelings and conduct
wholly egoistic in their hedonism, and make the pursuit of
pleasure their God the chief good. Such a kind of self-
love and such men society does not want, but rather recog-
nizes as honorable a disinterested desire for the prosperity
of those who are dear to us and who will survive us, and
for others of our race ; and considers this kindly disposi-
tion as characteristic of one who has arrived at a high
state of civilization and nobility.
1 Henry V., Act ii., Scene 4.
8 jjdoj>#--delight, enjoyment, pleasure.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 7S
There are in the world two armies of men one the
Army of Impurity, the other the Army of Purity. The
former and numerically greater army is campaigning
against womankind by every device of deceit, treachery
and corruption, while the latter represents the strong men
and real friends of women and posterity. Many true men,
many noble men, many thoughtless men may be in the
wrong camp through misconception; but one can hardly
conceive of their cause gaining recruits from those who
have taken the pains to learn the casus belli.
It may be taken for granted that what we desire above
all else is to have the noblest possible specimens of man-
hood adorning our contemporary history men who refresh
us by their loftiness of character and who command our
respect for their heroism and gallantry; and whatever
course will acccomplish this result is best best for us
and best for posterity.
As an axiom, then, we say that the man who is clean in
morals and physique is the right kind of citizen for the
hopes of the present and future of society.
Of course it is a fight ! Yes, we grant that it is a battle-
royal to keep oneself chaste and pure from early man-
hood till the sexual powers are extinguished by old age,
and for sense to triumph over sin. But when once we fully
understand the benefits to be derived from leading a pure
life, and the dangers of a contrary course, we shall earnest-
ly strive to adhere to the former in spite of all temptations.
Nocturnal emissions of semen occur occasionally in all
normal men as desirable physiological events which give
convincing proof of virility. Every healthy man, after
puberty, feels the flame of sexual desire and generative
inclination to a very considerable extent, Nature using this
as a spur to compel him to accumulate property, marry, and
perpetuate offspring ; and at times he experiences what are
called " wet dreams" or " pollutions, " in which the distended
seminal vesicles are relieved of their superabundant semen.
76 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Silly men, who gain their information from the evil publi-
cations of charlatans who are wholly mercenary in their
aims, wrongly attribute these losses to some mischief in
their generative functions.
The emissions occur with varying frequency in different
men, and in the same man at different times. If one
takes little exercise, oversleeps, lives on a rich diet, uses
tea, coffee, or tobacco to excess, and stimulates his mind
with erotic fancies and pursuits, he will probably experi-
ence them with more frequency than the active man who
directs his energies more to his brain and muscles than to
his sensual nature.
According to the trend of the thoughts and the mode of
life the " pollutions" may in health occur as frequently as
once in every ten or fourteen days, or as seldom as once in
several weeks, or very rarely in those who are leading ex-
cessively active lives. To the continent man these nocturnal
emissions afford a safeguard against sexual, moral and in-
tellectual turbulence. It may frankly be admitted that
one's amorous desires increase with the accumulation of
semen, so that it is more difficult at these times to remain
chaste in thought and action ; but with the recurrence of
this function of ejaculation, a feeling of physiological ease
follows. There need be no shame or regret over this phe-
nomenon, since it is almost as much a man's nature to
have an occasional emission of semen as it is a woman's
function to menstruate. It is a natural substitute for
copulation, and a characteristic sign that the individual
still retains the health and power to procreate, though
potency may remain after emissions have ceased.
After maturity is reached a man begins to feel longingc
for a wife, and home and children, which sexual inclina-
tions are quite different from those of the romantic youth
or voluptuary. Unless a stern duty compel him to forego
the delights of marriage, one should shape and subordinate
his ambition toward the accomplishment of this natural
THE CONSEQtJEtfCES OF IMPtTRITY. 77
and established custom at some day, and continually seek
to preserve his body and character fit to perform the func-
tions of a lover, husband, father, and good citizen. To at-
tain this lofty position it is necessary for him to retrench
his pleasures, both for his own welfare and for the sake of
his wife, children and society ; and he can lead a perfectly
continent life with the assurance that his procreative pow-
ers will not the earlier wane on that account.
Men of the greatest force are to-day living chastely as
bachelors. And as eminent examples of such lives may be
mentioned the names of men of such vigor and mental
acumen as Sir Isaac Newton, Beethoven, Kant, and Jesus
of Nazareth.
A man's personal welfare, apart from all considerations
of a loftier nature, is certainly not dependent on his sexual
gratification. In fact, the proper subjugation of the sexual
impulses, and the conservation of the complex seminal fluid,
with its wonderfully invigorating influence, develop all that
is best and noblest in men; for love's impulse has its very
foundation in the sexual domain. On the contrary, the
lusting man, assuming a far greater freedom than the mar-
ried man, no sooner experiences the effects of an accumu-
lation of semen than he hastens to rid himself of it, with a
corresponding loss of healthy animation. Such a course
is unphysiological, and prevents the development of the
ideal athletic or mental type of manliness. This, as might
be anticipated, is shown by the observed results. A char-
acter which is chaste and pure continually prefers higher
thoughts to lower thoughts, and manliness to unmanliness ;
and if even the lesser degrees of coarseness and lewdness are
harbored in the intellect, or if it be stimulated by erotic
fancies and associations, its owner will fall short of being
a noble man. Invariably the character of an incontinent
man is degenerated; and if he is unregenerate, it pro-
gressively continues to degenerate. One cannot be a liber-
tine or f ornicator without telling and hearing lies, nor asso-
78 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ciate in levity with coarse and diseased men and women
without contamination; nor is there any possible way in
which one can gratify his sexual passions extra-matrimo-
nially, and not come off with a character smirched and
soiled.
Unquestionably the sexual instinct not the sensual is
the most powerful of the appetites, and exerts a directing
influence, beyond the bounds of ordinary belief, over the
life-history of every man and woman. It were false to deny
this; and woe to the world when this is not so ! But from
every consideration which appeals to reason, or science,
or love, or morality, or health, the indulgence of this power-
ful passion must be kept within the physiological limits
which are afforded only by the married life.
To accentuate the power of the sexual instinct is not to
assume, that normal men's and women's minds are over-
burdened with a desire to fornicate ; but we desire to point
out that it is this noble instinct which impels love between
the sexes, love of progeny, love of home, love of purity, and
admiration for true manliness and true womanliness being,
in fact, the very fountain-source of love, which must not be
polluted. Love and the sexual instinct go hand in hand.
On this account we see a girl fonder of another's brother,
and a youth fonder of another's sister; we see it through-
out all animate nature, if we will but observe ; we see it in
all its purity between male and female birds and nothing
is prettier than the share which each loyal parent assumes
in constructing and maintaining their nest and family.
After a wife has conceived and is carrying the embryo
child within her womb, and still more so after parturition,
a new and different kind of love springs up in her breast
for her husband, and also in the heart of the husband
for his wife, both being awed by the feeling that they have
been permitted in the course of natural law to reproduce a
new human being which partakes equally of their natures.
As beautiful an event as we can think of is the transfer-
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 79
mation of a virgin into a wife and mother ; and had society
been rightly educated, it would regard the transformation
of a man into a husband and father as equally beautiful.
If both are pure, both are ennobled ; if one is impure, both
are degraded ; they twain are one flesh. An incontinent
man forfeits this high privilege.
Those of extended experience in the affairs of " men of
the world" well know the prevalence of the practice of pro-
miscuous fornication, not only among bachelors, but also
among married men with families. Such infractions of the
moral canons of civilization nature visits with dire punish-
ment by the imposition of "venereal diseases." These
maladies are most feared by those who understand them
best ; for they often ruin the health of the sufferer, remain
latent for long periods of time, and are liable to be trans-
mitted to one's wife and posterity. Irregular sexual inter-
course among the lower animals is not so punished by
venereal disease, for the brutes are far purer in their de-
sires and cleaner in their methods than the lewd part of
humanity.
Every physician of much experience can report a multi-
tude of instances in which a pure girl has been degraded
by marriage with a libertine, and infected with an acute or
latent form of venereal disease of which she never suspects
the nature, but on account of which she enters upon a life
of invalidism, her children often sharing in the catastrophe.
Women are only exceptionally the aggressors; it is the
men who bring the poison into the family circle. It is
certain that wives are by far more generally true to their
vows, and that they as a rule love the bonds of matrimony
more than their husbands do, and that a shameful number
of married men secretly violate conjugal vows, only to bring
sorrow, disease and destruction into their own households.
Such a man approaches the nature of a beast ; nay, he is
worse than a beast ; for the beast breaks no vows and en-
joys an assurance of immunity from venereal disease, while
80 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the man treads a path known to be beset with sorrow,
broken vows, separations, disease, anguish and death.
It is a fact that innumerable men, otherwise intelligent,
are miserably and calamitously unenlightened concerning
matters pertaining to their sexual nature, having an active,
deformed ignorance, and being distinguished for their one
purpose to enjoy themselves men of but one idea, and
that a wrong one. Doubtless they think it convenient to
be thus ignorant. In affairs of business, men usually have
an established mode of investigating every detail, and are
guided by reason and judgment in their transactions ; but
when it comes to the question of health or morals factors
of paramount importance many give over all responsibil-
ity. Because punishment is remote and slow in being
meted out, some offenders apparently escaping, they think
to avoid the inexorable retribution which a violation of
Nature's laws entails.
Several most skilful venereal specialists have recently
said in verbal communications to the writer that personally
they would rather have an attack of syphilis, if it could be
well treated, than a badly treated or neglected case of gon-
orrhoea; and this but voices the opinion of the modern
profession.
^Esop's fox, when he had lost his tail, strove to modify
the prevailing fashion by advising his fellow foxes to follow
his example and abridge their caudal appendages ; but he
never was the same fox. Similarly, a diseased man after a
time becomes content with his bodily condition, actually
imagines himself cured without authoritative confirmation,
and reports to his companions in favor of running the risk ;
saying something which sounds like superlative wisdom to
the ignorant, many of whom blindly follow his example.
Men who make a practice of illicit intercourse almost
never escape disease. There may, of course, be a few ex-
ceptions to this rule ; but practically every worshipper at
Phryne's shrine receives as his punishment the inevitable
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. . 81
sting of disease ; and lie may acquire all the forms gon-
orrhoea, chancroids, syphilis, and even leprosy, which is
largely a venereal disease.
When the writer was in Yienna he made the friendship
of a most intelligent Russian gentleman, a patient in the
hospital, who had formerly been a merchant in Bombay.
This man was under one professor's treatment for syphilis
and under another's for leprosy. Gonorrhoea he of course
had had. Oh, the anguish of that sufferer ! Cut off from
all fellowship with the world, he yet acknowledged that he
deserved all he had got on account of his profligacy ; but it
was a terrible load to bear no hope of cure, separate eat-
ing utensils, a characteristic uniform, shunned by every
one, no friends, no outlook but a progressive advance to a
loathsome decay and death. Repentance and contrition
he had, so that his moral offence might be forgiven, but
the darksome plight of his body was past repair.
Leprosy, it is true, does not seriously threaten the care-
less man at the present time ; but there are a great num-
ber of cases in Norway, Nova Scotia, Louisiana, South
America (notably Brazil), the Hawaiian Islands, all
throughout Asia, and now and again it is seen sporadi-
cally in our large cities. Sexual impurity is closely asso-
ciated with its spread.
Prof. Howard A. Kelly, of Johns Hopkins University,
a surgeon of great experience, says :
" It is not a venial sin for men to consort with prostitutes.
It blunts a man's finer sensibilities, it lowers his respect
for women, it leaves its indelible marks in disease, for
sooner or later every man who indulges his passions un-
lawfully contracts disease. It is not possible for either
men or women who prostitute themselves freely to escape
it. And these diseases are not only the most loathsome
and the most disgusting in their early manifestations, but
they have the horrible characteristic of becoming latent.
A man who contracts disease of this sort can never be sure
82 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
that he is cured, for venereal disease is not a merciful dis-
ease, like cancer, killing its victim within a certain definite
time. Bather, it is a death in life ; such local lesion may
occur as to destroy forever the sexual function, and the
unchaste man finds that he is incapable of realizing one of
the chief blessings of life, surrounding himself with a
family of children, who will be to him in the struggle of
life a daily incentive and comfort, in whom in old age he
may live again." 1
It may be observed that men who are on the right track
grow better and better as they grow older that the re-
verse is true of those who give themselves up to impurity,
and that such degenerate in every fibre of their higher
faculties, becoming less and less types of ideal manhood.
How especially repellent it is to see an old man from force
of habit and evil desire looking lustfully at young girls and
women !
When a crop is sown the reaper gathers in much more
than he sowed ; and so also the pleasure derived from lead-
ing a voluptuous life is trifling indeed compared to the
amount of harm done to one's health, career and character,
or to his wife, posterity, or society, not to speak of the
risks usually regarded by all as worthy the attention
which he incurs by going contrary to the uniform impreca-
tions of moral law against such practices.
The privilege of sowing " wild oats" has been altogether
reserved by men for themselves, never being tolerated in
their sisters; but the only way by which one can enjoy
impurity of life is to put aside all thought for one's health
and character, all respect for morality and womankind, all
intention of reaping what is sown, and every quality which
stamps a true man, and not to burden the mind with a
thing so uninteresting as punishment.
How disgusting it is to see a man nursing his genital
organs, using lotions and drugs, wearing supports, going
1 An address to men, delivered in Baltimore, Easter Sunday, 1896,
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 83
from physician to quack, thinking, pondering, dreaming,
talking of and habitually fixing his attention upon his sexual
organs ! We doctors wash our hands in antiseptics after
touching such men, and yet they go about eating with
clean people, using the same towels and water-closets and
bath-tubs, and only wait for the external manifestations of
their disease to disappear before they return to their lewd-
ness, being absolutely thoughtless of the welfare of the
poor fallen women.
THE FACTOR OF UNCLEANNESS AMONG WOMEN WHO ABE
LOOSE WITH THEIR FAVORS.
Men of high intelligence may frequently be heard to say
that they feel safe in going to the better grade of bawdy-
houses,, since it is the business of the inmates to keep
themselves clean. Undoubtedly one is less liable to con-
tract disease from a professional strumpet than from an
immoral servant-girl, shop-girl, or actress, because the
latter are strumpets in secret, and practise no precautions ;
but the choice is only relative, for all loose women are
necessarily most unclean. By sinking to a depth of in-
famy far below the level of any examples to be found
among the brutes, the unchaste members of the human
family have transmitted the filthy venereal diseases through
the ages, while the lower animals are exempt.
Even among the most degraded human beings there is
an instinctive feeling of self-consciousness while in the
sexual embrace, ' while the brutes are entirely free frdm
all modesty, and, if not frightened, will not hesitate to copu-
late before witnesses. This feeling of shame partly ex-
plains why venereal affections are called " secret diseases."
There is no animal, not even the swine, which from a bac-
teriological point of view can for a moment be compared
in filth and repulsiveness to a prostitute. None can fully
1 For a revolting and perhaps unique exception, vide Xenophon,
Anabasis, Lib. V., Cap. 4, adfinem. _ ,
84 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
appreciate this who has not had an extended hospital and
dispensary experience. When one considers what she is
no prostitute is attractive ; and a visual, digital and micro-
scopical examination of her sexual apparatus and '.its secre-
tions would cool the ardor of a satyr, if he were capable of
appreciating the scientific procedures.
A "kept mistress," who is limited to the embraces of
one man, is not, strictly speaking, a prostitute, and she
may be clean from infection if both she and he remain true
to each other. But a prostitute copulates with a large
number of men, and the fact that she lives in the most ex-
clusive and expensive " house" will not save her from dis-
ease ; for the rich and extravagant men who frequent these
" high-class" resorts have never been supposed to be a whit
less free from disease than their poorer counterparts.
Furthermore, it is the rule, almost without exception,
that every prostitute of much experience has had gonor-
rhoea at some time, and in quite a large number of cases
syphilis as well, because they admit diseased men. Gon-
orrhoea of the male urethra is the most frequent disease
which affects mankind, as all authorities say, and, with
here and there an exception, every man who indulges much
in venere has had gonorrhoea, or syphilis, or both. Grant-
ing that many of these men have, after the lapse of two
years or so, recovered to such an extent that there is little
likelihood of their transmitting infection to the woman, yet
even with the best luck a large number of them will be
sure to be suffering from disease; and men who follow
after, unless already infected, cannot long escape contami-
nation.
A gentleman recently related in the presence of the writer
that several years since he was with a very attractive young
prostitute, who boasted to him of having received $110 on
that single day. Overcome with disgust at such a striking
proof that harlots must be promiscuous, he has never visited
one since.
THE CONSEQUENCES OP IMPURITY. 85
* The supposition that a prostitute submits to but one
act of prostitution every day is ridiculously small. No
woman could pay her board, dress, and live in the expen-
sive manner common among the class, upon the money she
would receive from one visitor daily ; even two visitors is
a very low estimate, and four is very far from an unreason-
ably large one." 1
By frequent douches, astringent washes, and perfumes,
the careful harlot may deceive her paramour into the belief
that she is all that his fancy and passion could desire ; but
chronic and filthy discharges flow profusely from the whole
tribe, and the arts of the toilette only conceal the external
evidences of their disorders. A very good damper to the
longing of one who desires to go into a brothel would be
to stand outside for a time and observe the kind of men
whom he is to follow silly fops, diseased and rotten men,
worn-out old men, married men, unmarriageable men.
While we have been so positive in proclaiming that loose
women are diseased and loathsome, yet we do not wish to
be understood as being too severe on these poor creatures.
It is a hard thing at best for any woman, more especially
if unequipped for it, to be compelled to earn her own living
in competition with men who are often brutal to her ; and
circumstances and disposition make it harder for some than
for others. These prostitutes are not soulless creatures,
and their hearts are by no means barren of good. Many
of them, indeed, have kind and honest natures, are self-
sacrificing in their devotion to each other when trouble or
sickness comes, and often have as good sentiments as many
other more fortunate girls. A baptism of suffering and
sorrow has added much to their large-heartedness, and the
spirit of mirth and revelry which is assumed when they
have "company" is merely a thin veneer to their real feel-
ings. There is no one for whom we should have so much
sympathy and compassion as for a fallen woman who re-
History of Prostitution," p. 599.
86 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
grets her position and multitudes of them are in that con-
dition. But the idea that one can cohabit with a clean
harlot one who has not been exposed to the embraces of
diseased men may be absolutely set aside as absurd. No'
self-respecting man who fully appreciates the risks would
expose himself to such dangers, which are perhaps greater
than the risk of eating mushrooms gathered by ignorant
hands.
It is well to remember that at certain stages of gonor-
rhoea the voluptuous desires of some patients are inordi-
nately intensified. The point of importance in this con-
nection is that a most dangerous class of diseased men,
with abnormally strong sexual appetites, are going about
without conscience, supervision, or legal restraint, and
using these very women whom so many men feel safe in
patronizing.
Though harlots are so extremely unsafe, it is even more
dangerous, as a rule, to fornicate with women clandestinely ;
for they act in ignorance, without precautions, and secretly,
while their word is obviously untrustworthy.
A short time ago the writer saw a married man who
came complaining of an irritation and discharge from his
penis, for which he could not account, as he had been with
no woman except a "perfectly honorable married lady"
with whom he was in the habit of consorting. From this
"perfectly honorable married lady," however, he had ac-
quired a gonorrhoea, and with his indisposition to submit
to treatment for the proper length of time he will probably
never recover from its effects.
Venereal diseases are exceedingly grave, and are practi-
cally sure to be acquired by every man who indulges to any
considerable extent in illicit intercourse. They are, then,
practically diseases of choice and selection, which a man
really elects to acquire when he puts himself in the way
of them. If the prostitute were suffering from any of
the infectious fevers, such as small-pox, scarlet fever, or
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 87
measles, the visitor would flee precipitately ; and yet any
of these are far less harmful in their results, as a rule, than
the venereal diseases. The peculiarity of these affections
is that their course is long drawn out over a period of years
or a lifetime, except in those cases which have a fortu-
nate outcome. Unless the signs of disease were very well
marked, the layman could not by any possibility recognize
them in a woman, even after the most minute inspection ;
nor, in fact, could the most skilful physician without care-
ful microscopical examination, repeated at intervals over a
period of considerable length. 1
THE COST IN TIME AND MONEY.
In venereal cases the usual moderate charges in cities
are, $10 for the first consultation, and $5 for each sub-
sequent one, without credit. The average doctor is pre-
eminently easy in financial transactions and uniformly
charitable when necessity invites ; but from these notori-
ously untrustworthy patients, whose diseases are those of
election, the fee is very properly expected to be forthcom-
ing at each visit. Without treatment one cannot hope to
be cured, and must either present himself at the doctor's
office, or else* be visited, sometimes once daily, sometimes
two or three times a day ; and if the expenses for medical
treatment, sanitation, loss of time from work, etc., be
taken into account, he will be fortunate if he does not have
a bill which amounts to several hundreds of dollars. Of
course, the average gonorrhceal patient does not pay any-
thing like this amount ; but if the case be complicated, or if
syphilis happen to be the form of the venereal disease,
the expenses sometimes amount to many thousands of dol-
lars, which are distributed over the years of a lifetime.
Should the patient not be able to afford payment, he
must attend a dispensary for genito-urinary diseases, where
he will be thrown into contact with an aggregation of the
1 For fuller explanation, see chapter on Gonorrhoea.
88 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
filthiest and most disgusting specimens of humanity, and
lie will be required to take his seat and rank himself along-
side of men whom a clean man touches only from necessity.
The expense of keeping a mistress is often greater than
what would suffice to support a family; but even that
method is not safe.
THE FACTOR OF THE DOCTOR'S SKILL.
Many patients look up to their doctor as a sort of sage,
blindly placing the most implicit confidence in him, and
never giving a thought to the possibility that he can do
wrong. It is not for the writer to speak disparagingly of
a calling to which he belongs, and which he admires with
the deepest reverence; but doctors are human, and make
many an error.
No physician is properly qualified to treat venereal dis-
eases who is not skilful in microscopy and bacteriology ;
for the criterion of cure, which can be told only by the
microscope, is most essential in giving information when
to stop and how long to continue treatment. A great num-
ber of doctors pronounce the cases cured far too early, to
the lasting harm of their patients.
In many cases patients are over-treated or maltreated by
doctors, and in a majority of cases they themselves are
"lacking," as Finger says, "in a quality which cannot be
supplied by the apothecary, viz., patience." A large
number of foolish men are deluded by the advertisements
of charlatans, who not only rob them of all the money they
can and give them bad treatment, but also, what is even
worse, prevent them from receiving good treatment. It is
well known by physicians that only a very small propor-
tion of venereal patients receive anything like adequate
attention, partly on account of prescriptions which are
carelessly given over the druggist's counter, partly from
the mischief done by the press in receiving harmful adver-
tisements, and partly owing to the desire among patients
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 89
to cease treatment as soon as possible. Thus the medical
profession is handicapped, and cannot begin to grapple
with these diseases while such ignorance and apathy are
prevalent.
YENEEEAL PATIENTS ABE TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES
POISONOUS ANIMALS.
Loathing themselves, and finding the trouble and ex-
pense of treatment irksome, they long for the day when
they can consider themselves cured, which they do when
the visible signs of disease have disappeared.
Diseased men get reckless in the indulgence of their
passions. Not only have they lost their morale, strong in
the belief that there is little more for them to acquire, but
also the inflammation in the deep urethra, especially of the
caput gallinaginis, morbidly stimulates their passions, so
that these men are most highly dangerous to human society,
being in fact poisonous men seeking to poison others.
Excessively lustful, and governed by no moral restraint,
they actively seek to gratify their passions at the expense
of any available woman's health and life, and at the ex-
pense of those foolish men who follow in their tracks.
If mothers could only appreciate that such men eagerly
seek for invitations to balls, where they can ideally feast
their sexual fancies in the midst of so much that is at
best unquestionably voluptuous, they would exercise a far
greater caution in making out their lists of invitations. If
one will write down the names of the men at any large ball,
and scratch off all whom he believes to be unfit to come
into close contact with his own sister, he will find an object-
lesson of significant import and much food for reflection.
Fallen men not only acquire the loathsome venereal dis-
eases themselves, but also transmit them to prostitutes, to
their wives, families and posterity. They are enemies to
society, and can offer no excuse which is not characteristic
of an irresponsible selfishness. With darkened intelli-
90 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
gence, and by continual stimulation of their sexual pas-
sions with erotic thoughts, sensual conversation and litera-
ture, and by rehearsal of lewd stories, they produce in
themselves, and in others who fall under their noxious
influence, an unconquerable passion. The secretion of the
testicles is absolutely the only hope of the future of the
race, and yet, if wrongfully used, it is so potent that it
may figuratively be classed along with the secretions of the
poison-fangs of venomous reptiles.
Whether the semen belong to a healthy or diseased
man, it is nevertheless, when unphysiologically used, a
concentrated fluid of more venom than any other chemical
product in the world. If it be the semen of a syphilitic,
then it is without exception the acme of all poisons, which,
instead of exercising a rapidly lethal effect like the cobra's
or rattlesnake's venom, inflicts its fatally pernicious influ-
ence on women and on children who were better far un-
born.
Figuratively, a poison is " anything noxious or destruc-
tive to health or morality," and a venom also is not only
actively injurious to health, but, metaphorically, "any-
thing that poisons, blights, cankers, or embitters." So
without hyperbole every man who violates womankind
unlawfully, without sharing the consequences of intercourse,
is literally a highly poisonous and venomous animal.
A REFORMED PROFLIGATE MAKES A POOR HUSBAND.
Many an innocent wife is dragged down by the grossness
of her husband's nature, and suffers with unmerited dis-
ease which has been given to her through his treachery and
falseness. This occurs as frequently among the upper as
among the lower classes ; but wives do not often appreciate
the nature of their illnesses, this being necessarily con-
cealed by the physician in the interests of family peace.
It is a commonly expressed sentiment that " it is just as
well for a man to sow his wild oats when he is young, for,
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 91
if he does not, he may never get over the tendency, and
perhaps sow them after marriage." Nothing could be
more pernicious than such a proposition; for a reformed
profligate makes the poorest kind of a husband often be-
ing corrupt in body, and perhaps having imperious mental
concepts which we will call brain-stains. Society errs in
recognizing a necessity to sin; for the consequences of a
surrender to vice are remote and lasting, on account both
of the physical harm done, and of the blight of licentious-
ness which settles on the consciousness and inner nature
of the individual.
It is inconceivable that any should be so thoughtless as
to advocate a man's bringing the hideous fruits of his
licentiousness into the marriage relationship.
Intercourse with different women is well known to mor-
bidly increase desire, while married life bridles it and
keeps passion under proper subjection. The husband who
has a clean record and a mind free from stain is far more
apt to have perfect ease and perfect love for his wife ; but
indulgence in promiscuous fornication of course excludes
the feeling of love, which is a physiological necessity in a
true sexual relationship : and one who has been a f ornicator
is bound to have a soiled imagination, and perhaps a dis-
eased body as well. Purity of life is the greatest incen-
tive to marriage; and the lusting man, fortunately, does
not feel much impulse to marry, finding elsewhere the
opportunities to act a part which he considers natural, and
being poisoned in his inner nature at the very sources from
which true love springs.
Through the association of ideas, trivial circumstances,
as is well known, may produce impotency in men, so that
they may have, in greater or less degree, a horror femince, or
loathing for all or for certain women ; or perhaps they may
be compelled to create stimuli ideally in order to be potent.
That this should be so is hardly to be wondered at when
we consider that the sexual orgasm is attended with the
92 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
most intense nerve excitement, and that the cerebral centres
which preside over the emotions are in a state of intensified
susceptibility during the act of copulation, so that the
brain-cells, upon such occasions, are peculiarly liable to
have permanent impressions firmly and ineradicably fixed
upon them. So intense is sexual excitement in some in-
dividuals that many of the frequent deaths of elderly men
in bawdy-houses are attributed to syncope while in the
sexual orgasm. Male insects usually die after sexual con-
gress ; and some animals are so rapt in ecstasy during the
act that they can be mutilated without their paying the
slightest attention. Even under the usual degree of in-
tensity of excitement which is experienced during the con-
summation of the act, it is not to be wondered at that
mental impressions which are then prominent become deep
and lasting. Accordingly, if sentient men fornicate with
the coarse, the low, the vicious, the strongly perfumed,
and the voluptuously attired harlots, they may render
themselves mentally soiled, and perhaps at a remote date
be impotent for copulation with their pure wives, unless
they resort to some sham or mental trickery.
There is an extraordinary importance attached to certain
accidental factors impressed on the mind of many a de-
bauchee which are essential to his successful accomplish-
ment of the sexual act ; thus, some men are impotent with
blondes, some with brunettes, and some with naked women,
while others can copulate only if their peculiar fetich is
either ideationally or actually present; i.e., their idiosyn-
crasy may compel them to imagine themselves to be in
some fantastic relationship with the woman, or she must
be attired with some special article of apparel, or possess
some quality of odor, or peculiarity of manner, or other
indispensable prerequisite, the importance of which is in-
conceivable to a normal man. De gustibus non est dis-
putandum. Such an association of ideas is of course
pathological, but it often affects a man who has been pro-
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 93
miscuous in his indulgence, especially if he be of a nervous
temperament, or of a vicious ancestry. It is an acquired
taint, making him one of "Nature's stepchildren," and
ever afterward coloring and playing an active part in his
psycho-sexual life. Men who enjoy sexual pleasure with
many women indeterminately are not capable of real love,
the great satisfaction of which consists in the possession
of the beloved one body and soul, and in being possessed
by her in the same way, so that the two souls are knit to-
gether, each confident of the other, and each representing
to the other the sum-total of possibilities of sexual pleas-
ures.
Some profligate men suffer from an impotence, of which
there are several varieties : 1. Impotentia coeundi, or defect,
complete or partial, of power to copulate. 2. Impotentia
generandi, or inability to become fathers on account of a
lack of spermatozoids in the semen. 3. Relative Impotence ;
i.e., a man may be perfectly potent with some women who
fulfil his perverted ideals, but impotent with others ; thus,
a man may be unable to consummate the sexual act with
his wife, but quite able to succeed with prostitutes ; or he
may be potent only if the woman be entirely nude, while
another similarly affected man might require her to be
dressed in some peculiar manner, wearing the articles
which form his fetich, before he could induce orgasm.
4. Psychical Impotence ; ^.e.,,some nervous men, especially
those who have resorted to unnatural means of sexual grat-
ification, and those who are frightened by the acquisition
of venereal disease, labor under great nervous excitement
from a fear of inability to perform their conjugal duties ;
in the marriage relationship they are chagrined at failure,
but may yet be able to copulate satisfactorily with prosti-
tutes.
A multitude of married men, supposedly reformed profli-
gates, continue to frequent women in secret, though they
have promised by their marriage vows to guard their wives
94 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
or else endure the worst; but the women allied with them
in marriage consented to do what Portia wisely refused to
do " if I should marry him, I should marry twenty hus-
bands."
Some statisticians say that seventy-five per cent of mar-
riages are unhappy ; nor can it be wondered at so long as a
debased society continues to condone profligacy. " Unlike
the women [harlots], the men are drawn from no single
class, condition, or age in the community, but from all
alike. They are drawn into the vortex by an instinct, it is
true, but not a natural one a perverted one. It is aston-
ishing how little ' passion' there is in the trade on either
side. So far from the 'hot blood of youth' being chiefly
responsible, houses of ill-fame derive two-thirds of their
income from married men over forty. "
A woman who gets a husband whose sexual excitability
is dependent upon peculiar perverted stimuli, which are
outside of her power to gratify, will hardly be able to keep
him from going to strumpets, who alone can, and will,
pleasurably stimulate his corrupted tastes; nor can she
reasonably hcpe that these extraordinarily powerful and
imperative concepts will ever be rooted out from his psy-
cho-sexual life. Marriage cannot be relied upon to trans-
form such men's natures, nor to eradicate the impressions
which their former lascivious modes of life have fixed as
indelible stains on those brain-cells which are concerned
in the phenomena of memory and imagination. Those
who spend the best years of their lives in seeking for ille-
gitimate pleasures, which their reason, if used, would lead
them to shun, inevitably get the sting of pain and sorrow
for their reward. That is not the way to be happy, nor
can any justification be found for leading a reckless life
which is injurious to oneself and many others.
The essentials of the secret of 'a happy marriage, by de-
1 Woods Hutchinaon, M.D., Medical News, New York, June 26th,
1897.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 95
duction from the foregoing, may be shortly summed up as
follows :
That the man and woman shall be well mated physi-
cally, sexually and mentally, in harmony in their moral
sympathies, and possessed of the normal sexual inclina-
tions and longings ; that each shall enter into the relation-
ship in virginity, chastity and modestj^, and that neither
shall be the slave of polluted' imperious mental concepts;
that each shall represent the sum total of sexual possibili-
ties for the other, upon assurance of which there can hardly
be jealousy or suspicion; that they shall appreciate that
marriage is, in a sense, an immortal relationship, their
lives continuing in their posterity ; that the husband shall
regard his wife with a deep reverence as occupying the
throne of nature, considering her sex and her potentiality
for motherhood as sacred, and that the wife shall be able
to confide in the sure faithfulness and protection of the
husband for herself and offspring; and that the founda-
tions of their conjugal relationship shall be laid in a love
which will bind them together and cause them to endure
all and suffer all for each other's sake.
" On slight reflection any one will see that real love (this
word is only too often abused) can be spoken of only when
the whole person is both physically and mentally the ob-
ject of adoration. Love must always have a sensual ele-
ment, i.e., the desire to possess the beloved object, to be
united with it and fulfil the laws of nature. But when
merely the body of the person of the opposite sex is the
object of love, when satisfaction of sensual pleasure is the
sole object, without desire to possess the soul and enjoy
mutual communion, love is not genuine, no more than that
of platonic lovers, who love only the soul and avoid sen-
sual pleasure." '
Health is Not Dependent on Sexual Indulgence. There is
an erroneous and widespread belief that exercise of the
1 Von Krafft-Ebing, " Psychopathia Sexualis, " p. 19.
96 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
sexual functions is necessary in order to maintain health.
Sophists, calling this a " necessary obedience to the laws
of nature," claim the right to degrade and ostracise an
enormous number of girls in a most damnable way as an
unpitied sacrifice to lust.
If this doctrine that a man cannot have good health
unless he fornicates were granted, the selfishness of our
sex would then spur many of us on to the work of degra-
dation of women, heeding not the call of gallantry, and
recking not what should betide the unfortunate victims
and posterity. This perverse doctrine is so readily ac-
cepted because it conveniently fits in with men's desires
and gives them a facet of self- justification; but every man
knows in his inmost heart that it is not necessary for him
to sin, and that a bawdy-house can never be a health resort.
The muscles and certain glandular structures, such as
the salivary, peptic, pancreatic, sebaceous and sweat glands,
and the liver, kidneys, and many other secretory organs,
must perform their functions continuously, or else they
will waste away and lose their activities ; but the reproduc-
tive glands have been so constructed that their specific ac-
tivities can be suspended for long periods of time without
their atrophy or the slightest impairment of function.
From the time of puberty until senility the testicles con-
tinue to secrete semen without stimulation, and will never
lose their power from continence. In this particular they
resemble the inherent capabilities of a woman's breasts,
which can remain quiescent for years, and, when called
into demand physiologically, respond with perfect function.
One of the world's foremost surgeons says:
" The influence of the sexual functions is so great in the
economy of human life, that any impairment of the organs
concerned is a matter of importance, not only in its effects
on the bodily health, but even more on the mental state of
the person affected. . . .
"The student should remember that 'the functions of the
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 97
testicle, like those of the mammary gland and uterus, may
be suspended for a long period, possibly for life ; and yet
its structure may be sound and capable of being roused
into activity, on any healthy stimulus. Unlike other
glands, it does not waste or atrophy for want of use, the
physical parts of man's nature being accurately adapted to
the necessities of his position, and to his moral being."
And Prof. Lionel S. Beale, of King's College, London,
says :
"It cannot too emphatically be stated that the strictest
continence and purity are in harmony with physiological,
physical, and moral laws, and that the yielding to the de-
sires, the passions and inclinations cannot be justified on
physiological, physical, or moral grounds."
Some ignoble and profane doctors, can be found, if one
search for them, who will advise men to fornicate, and in
times past some instructors have been known to tell medi-
cal students that, it would be well for them to acquire gon-
orrhoea in order to know how to treat it. But one cannot
justify himself by getting the sanction of a man who, bear-
ing the honorable title of doctor unjustly, prescribes anti-
dotes which are poisonous.
Reputable physicians and physiologists all unite in ad-
vocating a chaste and continent life, simply for the sake of
one's health, independently of all other considerations.
Speaking of prophylaxis from venereal disease, Dr.
Gowers, an eminent London physician, makes the follow-
ing excellent remarks in his lectures on Syphilis and the
Nervous System :
"One method, and one alone is possible, is sure, and
that one is open to all. It is the prevention and the safety
that can be secured by unbroken chastity. Is this poten-
tially becoming greater? As we look back through the
long centuries, we see the sensual more dominant in the
past, growing less as the race slowly rises. But, as we
1 Bryant's Surgery, vol. ii , p. 244.
7
98 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
look at the present, we can trace small ground for hope
that this process will have any appreciable influence unless
or until there is some change in men more potent and
effective than the slow 'love upward working out the beast'
of moral evolution. But that which will not perhaps be
for the mass may yet be for the individual. And, in end-
ing, I must ask a question and give a warning that I would
fain have left unasked, unsaid. But I cannot, I dare not
pass them by. Do we do all we can and our profession
gives us power- that no other has do we do all we can to
promote that perfect chastity which alone can save from
this, and from that which is worse? The opinions that on
pseudo-psychological grounds suggest or permit unchastity
are absolutely false. Trace them to their ultimate basis
and they are groundless. They rest only on sensory illu-
sions, one of the many illustrations of a maxim which I
have often to enforce on various sufferers: 'There are no
liars like our own sensations.' Bather, I should say, they
rest on misinterpretations, always biassed, and often delib-
erate. With all the force that any knowledge I possess
can give, and with any authority I may have, I assert as
the result of long observation and consideration of facts of
every kind, that no man was ever yet in the slightest de-
gree or way the better for incontinence ; that for it every
man must be worse morally, and that most are worse phys-
ically, and in no small number the result is, and ever will
be, utter physical shipwreck on one of the many rocks,
sharp, jagged-edged, or one of the many banks of fester-
ing slime, that are about his course, and which no care can
possibly avoid. And I am sure, further, that no man was
ever yet anything but the better for perfect continence.
My warning is : let us beware lest we give even a silent
sanction to that against which I am sure, on even the low-
est grounds that we can take, we should resolutely set our
face and raise our voice."
1 Space permit? the use of only a few quotations, but by actual
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 99
It is a pernicious pseudo-physiology which teaches that
exercise of the generative functions is necessary in order to
maintain one's physical and mental vigor of manhood.
For every evil deed that men do they seek some excuse,
and long-repeated iteration that exercise of the sexual func-
tions is essential for the maintenance of men's healthful-
ness not women's has caused this doctrine to be enthu-
siastically accepted as solving the problem for those who
are biassed in favor of fornication. But the excuses for
indulging in vice are untenable and the foul deeds are de-
fenceless. Nor can fashion, or custom, or weakness, which
are the devices of knaves and fools, excuse, for no such
plea will gain for any one remission from the sure physi-
cal punishment which is visited by natural law upon those
who commit fault or sin ; nor can his posterity escape the
physical and moral deterioration which is an organic, and
not a supernatural penalty.
" One argument in favor of incontinence deserves special
notice, as it purports to be founded on physiology. I have
been consulted by persons who feared, or professed to fear,
that if the organs were not regularly exercised, they would
become atrophied, or that in some way impotence might
be the result of chastity. This is the assigned reason for
committing fornication. There exists no greater error than
this, or one more opposed to physiological truth. In the
first place, I may state that I have, after many years' ex-
perience, never seen a single instance of atrophy of the
generative organs from this cause. I have, it is true, met
with the complaint but in what class of cases does it oc-
cur? It arises in all instances from the exactly opposite
cause early abuse: the organs become worn out, and
hence arises atrophy. Physiologically considered, it is
not a fact that the power of secreting semen is annihilated in
count the author has at hand the testimony of more than half a hun-
dred names of the most eminent medical writers and practitioners
that a perfectly chaste life is consonant with the most perfect con-
ditions of health.
100 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
well-formed adults leading a healthy life and yet remaining
continent. I have daily evidence that the function goes on
in the organ always, from puberty to old age. Semen is
secreted sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but very
frequently only under the influence of the will. I have
already referred to the fact which I shall hereafter treat
of in more detail that when the seminal vessels are full,
emission at night is not unfrequent. This natural relief
will suffice to show that the testes are fully equal to their
work when called upon. No continent man need be de-
terred by this apocryphal fear of atrophy of the testes
from living a chaste life. It is a device of the unchaste
a lame excuse for their own incontinence, not founded on
any physiological law. The testes will take care that their
action is not interfered with."
Until our passions die and we again become neuters, we
can never be perfectly free from temptations, but we can at
least rationally subjugate them and resist them, so that
they do not become ruling passions and we passion's slaves.
Foresight and the observation of others who have gone
along that dangerous path will lead us to see that indul-
gence in illegitimate pleasure brings nothing but pain,
though the pursuing of that course may, on the surface,
seem to be all pleasure.
" If a young man wished to undergo the acutest sexual
suffering, he could adopt no more certain method than to
propose to be incontinent, with the avowed intention of
becoming continent again when he had ' sown his wild
oats.' The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly
entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame is such
that it would not be too much to say to any youth com-
mencing a career of vice : ' You are going a road on which
you will never turn back. However much you may wish
it, the struggle will be too much for you. You had better
stop now. It is your last chance.'
1 Acton on the Reproductive Organs, p. 38.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 101
" There is a terrible significance in the Wise Man's words :
'None that go to her return again, neither take they hold
on the paths of life. ' " *
In the treatment of disorders of the sexual organs the
most important thing is to maintain a correct hygiene and
give rest to the sexual functions. " The majority of sexual
invalids (according to Furbringer, eighty-nine per cent)
attribute their malady to sexual excesses, onanism, and
gonorrhoaa. " 2
Sexual invalidisra, sterility, and nervous disorders in
the psycho-sexual domain are thus seen to be the concom-
itants not of continence, but of disease and excesses.
" In the course of my own professional experience, I can
truthfully say that I have never met with a single instance
in which disease of any kind was present as the result of a
pure or continent life. On the other hand, I have seen the
most horrible results from the unlawful and unprofessional
advice sometimes given by physicians to young men, sug-
gesting unchastity as being essential for the relief of some
physical weakness, though I have never met with a single
case in which the slightest benefit had been derived from
following such advice. My observations with reference to
the character of those who give professional advice of this
sort have long ago led me to the belief that, as a rule, only
those who have themselves been impure to such an extent
that they were bereft of their ability to judge properly of
the influence of a pure and continent life are capable of
giving such unwise and immoral advice." :
The lords of the harem are said to be frequently impo-
tent at twenty or thirty years of age on account of the un-
restrained stimulation of their reproductive functions; and,
1 Acton, loc cit., p. 18.
2 Schrenck-Notzing, "Suggestive Therapeutics in Psychopathia
Sexualis, " p. 92.
3 " Chastity and Health, " J. H. Kellogg, M. D. Transactions of the
National Purity Congress, held in Baltimore, October, 1895.
102 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
in fact, it is the lascivious man who is the poor, whining
sexual hypochondriac, while the continent man suffers no
harm and retains his virility unimpaired indefinitely long.
Society calls those women who have fallen into the sin
of unchastity as sacrifices for the fornicators by the vilest
terms, such as "abandoned women," "strumpets," "har-
lots," "whores," "prostitutes," "courtezans"; they are cut
off from all association with their fellow-beings, and are
deserted almost entirely, even by the churches.
The poor fallen woman, hounded from garret to cellar,
and driven hither and thither, is treated by the police as a
sort of wild animal, or criminal; she is segregated with
others of her class ; she is an outcast. Society, while not
tolerating her, and while giving her the most opprobrious
epithets, yet argues that some women must sacrifice them-
selves for the good of mankind ! Why, then, if it is neces-
sary that these women should exist, should we cast disgrace
upon them? Eather should we revere and extol them for
the sacrifice of themselves for the public good.
If they are necessary, then they have, for man's benefit,
thrown away every prospect of the joys of earth or heaven,
of home, of family, of motherhood and wifehood, of love,
of respect, and of hope ; having sold their peace of mind,
and happiness and honor, they have, in addition, sold
their own bodies.
If we maintain that their sacrifice is indispensable for
the health of the community, then we should worship them
for their self-immolation; no martyr ever equalled their
devotedness, and each of them, in such an argument, is
worthy of a monument ! If such reasoning be absurd, as
it assuredly is, how can any genuine man maintain that it
is essential for the sake of his health that some woman
should sacrifice for him her honor, her health, her respect-
ability, and her hope of everything that is sweet?
If one has found some poor woman who lives on the
money which he pays for her defilement, would that he
THE CONSEQUENCES OP IMPURITY. 103
might curb his passions and lend his support toward re-
forming her and helping her to engage in a reputable
pursuit ! Would that men might not trifle with a fellow
mortal's annihilation, but help to save her whose honor
rests upon our manly sympathy! Why should Man be
the only created being to degrade women, when not a
single animal ill-treats, deserts, or destroys the female of
his kind, but rather shares with her all the delights of life,
its pastimes and its labors ! We are made to help, not to
destroy one another, and there can be no logical support
for the degradation of one human being to maintain
another's health.
Mrs. Josephine E. Butler, in an address on the Social
Purity question, delivered before the students of Cambridge
University, England, said:
" Were it possible to secure the absolute physical health
of a whole province or an entire continent by the destruc-
tion of only one poor sinful woman, woe to that nation
which should dare by that single act to purchase this ad-
vantage to the many."
In the company of real men, who are well grounded upon
the truth, no person can dare to say that the degradation
of some particular woman is a necessity for him, without
either being kicked out of their presence as a poltroon,
or being classified as a low, vulgar, villainous rascal.
Where these women are forced to congregate there assem-
bles a hellish class of abandoned men, liars, thieves, as-
sassins, blackmailers, soiled and diseased men, syphilitics,
men with chronic gonorrhoea; thieves devise their plans
there, criminals and swindlers retreat there, abortionists
work there. The police and those familiar with city life
will corroborate every word of this.
Were it necessary that the sexual functions should be
exercised in order to maintain health, men could not sail
the seas or make campaigns or undertake explorations
without the companionship of women; nor could men
104 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
be continent during the months when their wives are
pregnant; and the women, being not so different
from ourselves, would also have to indulge in the same
prescription ; and thus all the bulwarks of home life and
of civilization, such as we strive for, would be over-
thrown.
Whatever ideas men entertain about incontinence, it
must, however, be remembered that no equivalent for sex-
ual improprieties can ever be advocated for ivomen outside
of marriage. A father may even be found who will en-
courage his sons to be impure, but- scarcely one who will
permit it in his daughters.
Outside of marriage, every sexual act not having in view
the propagation of the species is perverse. Marriage is
of course exceedingly desirable, and, in that relationship,
the temperate gratification of the sexual passion is health-
ful, and immensely increases the love between husband
and wife. But " purchased or forced love is not real love"
(Mantegazza) ; and without this element, and without the
intention of assuming the proper responsibility toward
the fruits of intercourse, every sexual act is grossly im-
moral and a perversion to be greatly ashamed of.
Every one is aware of the advantage to a child if its par-
ents have both been physically and mentally perfected and
prepared for the act of procreation by a hygienic course of
living and thinking from the very initial periods of their
life-histories.
Mirabeau, in speaking of the proper age at which to
begin a child's education, is reported to have said: "I
would begin twenty years before he is born by educating
his mother"; and Oliver Wendell Holmes has well said:
" If you want to reform a man, begin with his grandfather."
Any marriageable man is, of course, likely to be the ances-
tor of a posterity to whom he is under a certain unwritten
obligation ; and, if he be thoughtful, he will not care to be
the one to start his race on the road to degeneration by
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 105
impairing his own functions of body and character with
disease which is the fruit of his sin.
" One often hears the expression that a child is a chip
off the old block ; but this is only a very partial truth, for
a child is pre-eminently a composite chip off of many old
blocks. Galton has compared the complex nucleus of the
fertilized ovum" (i.e., the embryo child) "to a modern
Italian building which has been constructed of mate-
rial a column here, a cornice there, a lintel yonder
gathered from different classic buildings of varying an-
tiquity." 1
Of course, then, if a man poison his body and mind by
sexual vices, which are more transmissible to posterity than
any other, he gives to his heirs pillars which are rotten.
A chaste man holds his head high; obscenity does not
percolate from him, and he is strong in the assurance of a
perfect, unimpaired manhood ; he is apt to beget not weak-
lings, but a vigorous and lusty race.
On the other hand, the progeny of the impure are likely
to suffer on account of the impaired and vitiated vigor of
the parental reproductive functions ; thus they are liable to
have a proneness to sin organic fault, or physical and
moral damage they inherit a neurasthenic sexual predis-
position, a slight resisting power against many morbid
tendencies, a constitutionally impaired physical and moral
stamina, and, in innumerable cases, the awful blight of con-
genital syphilis. Not only the sons of the profligate, but
also his daughters, inherit the evil legacy, and whatever
appears as beautiful in them must chiefly be referred, not
to him, but to other ancestors, and to the wholesome influ-
ences of education and environment.
Every rational man, who is alive to the importance and
reality of the transmissions of hereditary strain, must come
unreservedly to the conclusion that irregular indulgence of
1 " Heredity with Variation, " Prof. D. K. Shute. New York Medi-
cal Journal, September llth, 1897.
106 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
those very functions by which progeny is begotten is an
unmitigated evil without a single excuse.
Intercourse with women who receive other men's em-
braces is disgustingly vulgar to any one who at all appre-
ciates the corruptness and putridity of such a practice ; and
yet if a man strive to avoid this filthiness by procuring a
woman who will be true to him alone, he may contract a
liaison which will entangle him in such complications of
sexual bondage that he will be compelled to marry her.
Such women being almost invariably of low social station,
a marriage of this nature might blast a man's whole career.
These women, not sympathizing with the fugitive attach-
ments of such men, have frequently been known to make
away with their paramours who have jilted them ; and jur-
ies seldom deal harshly with them. Can money pay for
the destruction of a woman's character, the violation of
her affections, or the abandonment of her offspring? Few
women have ever lived who would be so cruel to a man
under similar circumstances.
The more we understand women, the more we must re-
spect them; even an outcast prostitute has much genuine
tenderness and love in her nature ; she will love and cher-
ish her illegitimate child of uncertain paternity, spending
her all on it, while the father abandons them both, flatter-
ing himself that another is the father and that no respon-
sibility rests on him. There is strong reason to believe
that, after all, a woman is the finest work of creation, when
we consider her large endowment of love and constancy
and faithfulness ! In some respects she is the weaker ves-
sel, and is often led astray by the decoys which men lay for
her under the cloak of love and promise of future repara-
tion ; but we must blush for our sex when we consider the
amount of harm which many of us do, men being almost
invariably the aggressors, and licentious men far outnum-
bering the women who are impure.
Men have sought for every possible device whereby they
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 107
can worship at the shrine of Venus without contracting dis-
ease ; but, as might be expected, their efforts have resulted
in uniform failure, as all efforts will which are contrary to
natural law. Opponents may be relied upon to say that
there is nothing unnatural in promiscuous fornication, cit-
ing the lower animals as examples ; but the debased ele-
ment in the human race has never followed a course in any
way parallel with that which the instincts of the brutes
dictate. In whatever community sexual irregularities are
much practised, there may be found a la.rge number of in-
dividuals of both sexes who are irritable and nervous
wrecks in the sexual domain; and by hereditary trans-
mission the evil increases, by a process somewhat akin to
fermentation, so that in a very short space of time all nat-
uralness has disappeared. It is absurd to maintain that
the methods followed by the prostitutes, and by those who
patronize them, are in any sense natural, because the fun-
damental design of the sexual act procreation is of course
not in view ; but, if pregnancy does occur, the offspring is
either killed by abortion, a deed not known among ani-
mals, or abandoned to an infamous career. Among spar-
rows, gorillas or human beings, marriage is essentially
consummated by the act of copulation, which naturally is
an immensely important relationship, implying that the
male shall remain near the mother, fight off all enemies
from the home, and provide food until both the mother
and offspring are able to dispense with his services. Spar-
rows and gorillas need no religious or civil performances
to bind their marriages; and if men were as natural as
they are, the procreative act would mean much more than
the gratification of a transient physical appetite. If we
are to take our examples, from a scientific study of natural
history, i.e., from the plant and animal kingdoms, we shall
find no argument in support of prostitution or of any sub-
stitute akin to it ; while, on the contrary, we shall see that
animals and plants elaborate male and female fertilizing
108 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
elements which are brought into conjunction solely for the
purpose of reproduction of species. To mankind alone is
conceded the privilege a concession which we grant as
legitimate of a temperate gratification of the sexual appe-
tite in the marriage relationship, merely for the sake of
pleasure.
Many of the governments of Europe have sought to les-
sen the ravages of syphilis and gonorrhoea by licensing
houses of prostitution and enforcing a rigid medical in-
spection of the women. The absurdities of this system of
medical inspection will be more fully discussed in another
part of the book. l
It is common for men to pass through a stage of frolic-
some wildness in which they think it necessary to sow
some "wild oats." That "boys will be boys" is just as
physiological as that colts should be colts, lambs should
be lambs, puppies should be puppies, or that kittens should
be kittens. There is an unrestrainable potentiality in the
rich young blood which compels the healthy young of all
mammals to be buoyant, sportful, nimble, full of pranks,
tricks, gambols, escapades and wildness. Something is
wrong when a boy or young man does not feel " ripe for
exploits- and mighty enterprises," when he has too much
of the old man in him and takes himself too seriously;
and happy is the mature man who still retains some of this
youthful, sunshiny principle in his nature. This play-
element is most effective in keeping the mind and body
refreshed and wholesome, and it should never be elimi-
nated from one's life.
But though it is necessary for the mind and body to
relax in sport, it is not necessary to make an abuse of this
sport; the "wild oats" s-hould be s^own in light soil, where
they cannot take deep root and rise up into a luxuriant
crop, and no consideration should allow one to so far for-
get himself as to sow tares in his neighbor's garden.
1 Vide Chapter vii
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 109
All kinds of manly sport and healthful amusement should
be entered into heart and soul, but
"Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop,
Not to outsport discretion."
Othello, Actii., Sc. 3.
" Make not thy sport abuses : for the fly
That feeds on dung is coloured thereby. "
HERBERT, "Temple."
Of all the varieties of " wild oats, " this sin of impurity
far exceeds all others in its noxious and poisonous effects.
For a man who is ignorant of the chances of acquiring dis-
ease, ignorant of all the physical and moral consequences,
to put himself in a position to fall into such a trap is the
height of unreason ; even animals, as Darwin says, " learn
caution by seeing their brethren caught or poisoned. " '
One may sow other varieties of "wild oats," perhaps,
with impunity ; but before he makes himself liable to the
dreadful consequences inseparably connected with licen-
tiousness he should at least know just what he is doing.
If a man through his licentiousness burden himself with
the lasting consequences of disease, he has then done him-
self a grievous injury indeed ; but if, by reason of his mis-
guided passions, he get and beget disease, then he brings
others down with him in his ruin, destroying not only their
bodies, but also disgracing their reputations. The way to
reform is much easier for men than it is for women, and
there is no excuse if they do not mend their ways. Occa-
sionally it may seem almost necessary for the outcast wom-
an to continue in sin, because she earns her livelihood by
it ; but for the man, who spends his livelihood on it, there
is never any excuse that does not aggravate the fault.
From a purely selfish standpoint we must now see that
it is most inexpedient to exercise the sexual functions extra-
matrimonially ; for the dangers which beset one who in-
dulges in sexual irregularities are extraordinary, disease
1 "Origin of Species" ; vide also "The Descent of Man," p. 80.
110 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
being practically assured to every man who exposes him-
self to any considerable extent. *
Masturbation is so well understood to be destructive of
every quality of moral and physical manhood and beauty
that its devotee never thinks of acknowledging his defile-
ment, rarely even to his physician. In that it is a crime
against self, it is not so far-reaching in its consequences to
society unless the individual marries. It produces its own
train of personal neuroses, diseases and degenerations,
injuring the character, perverting the instincts, ruining
the nervous system, and, by striking at the very founda-
tions whence love comes, it unfits the victim for the high
functions of a husband and father. It is a " furious task-
master," universally berated; practised only in secret, it
affords a ready opportunity for frequent gratification. All
the world despises a masturbator, as he does himself.
fornication is a perversion, for it ignores the fundamen-
tal consequences of the procreative act namely, the wel-
fare of offspring. Besides the great risk of initiating a
new life, or of acquiring execrable preferences and strange
plies or inclinations, it necessarily affects two persons, and
thus becomes an act of vital importance to society. To
the unenlightened there is a strong fascination about the
strange woman who knows how by her dexterous encour-
agements and wily arts to inflame a man's passion by look,
gesture and apparel ; but the moth fluttering round the ex-
posed electric arc-light is hardly more in danger than he
who ventures to cohabit with a woman who is loose with
her favors.
Adultery, single or double, partakes of all the foul abom-
inations of fornication, besides profaning the covenant of
marriage, bringing a ruin of distress and disease into the
households, and being a civil injury punishable by fine or
imprisonment.
Gonorrhoea is a most serious disease with a notoriously
uncertain course, many cases being followed by remote
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. Ill
and lasting results which never can be cured, and it is the
most frequent cause of blindness in children.
Syphilis is rampant and easily acquired, and is so un-
certain in its course that it is impossible to predict in what
order the various lesions will develop ; and it is furthermore
impossible at any given time to assure a patient that he is
safe from its subsequent reappearance.
Its effects are liable to be transmitted to the third and
fourth generation of one's posterity; one's wife is liable to
be inoculated; it is an important factor in filling asylums
for the insane; it causes paralysis, heart disease, aneu-
risms, diseases of the eye, brain, kidneys, liver, bones,
and other almost innumerable affections. It often hor-
ribly disfigures the countenance with permanent scars;
or, by corrosion of the nasal bones, the nose may fall in,
and then the victim is labelled with his disease in the most
prominent part of his anatomy. It undermines the health
and increases the liability to take diseases of all kinds
consumption, pneumonia, heart disease, etc. At the very
best the victim must undergo an active, expensive and irk-
some course of treatment. The syphilitic must remain
under the observation of his physician for a lifetime ; and
he need expect no assurance that the disease may not again
manifest itself at some period in his life ; nor must he be
offended at the anxiety of the physician for the welfare of
his wife and children, even under the most favorable cir-
cumstances which prevail in himself.
CJiancroids are local lesions, with no lasting effects on
the constitution, but they leave permanent disfiguring
scars about and on the genitals.
Leprosy is not common in these climes, though not un-
known. It has been supposed to be largely a venereal
disease, and baffles treatment.
The man who makes the gratification of the lustful appe-
tite the chief end of his life, giving himself up to the pur-
suit of it without restraint, uncontrolled by the law of
112 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
self-preservation, and deaf to reason or morality, and even
the man who partially goes in for such a course of life, ex-
poses himself to the ravages of these loathsome diseases,
being led on to cultivate a taste which perhaps is perverse
by inheritance, but which is more often unduly stimulated
by the influences of evil associations, by a vicious mis-
information, or by the erotic pastimes of society. Whether
he is ignorant or not makes not the slightest difference as to
the consequences of his disease, and in any event he has
become " sin's fool," with jaded or over-stimulated desires,
perverted tastes, and diseased tissues a stranded wreck,
penitent perhaps, but unfit to become an ancestor. Fools
beckon on fools, the moralist and hygienist are laughed at,
and dunces are always ready to follow what is represented
to their willing ears as the " manly" path of lust.
Excuses for enjoying the delights of love are ready to
hand, or responsibility can be stifled and conscience re-
pressed by stupefying the senses with alcohol ; and then,
as when the " governor" of a steam-engine is disordered,
the mechanism of the brain's functions is confused, and
the unreasoning man rushes on to take the chances of
uncertainty.
These reckless men, while unreformed, are harmful citi-
zens wherever they may be. "No fornicator hath inher-
itance in the kingdom of Jesus Christ" (Ephes. v. 5), and
we do not need them here.
Seneca said, "Impurity is the foremost of the world's
wickednesses"; Cicero said, "There is no more heinous
pest than the indulgence of uncleanliness" ; and St. Isidore
said, " Whatever sin you name, you shall find nothing equal
to this crime." The voice of Nature condemns it by the
obvious consequences, and womankind and posterity would
say, could they speak out, " Oh, have mercy on us !"
To many a diseased man whose reproductive power has
expired prematurely, or whose generative functions are
disordered, the light of life seems to have gone out. The
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 113
premature extinction of virility causes such deep mental
depression and such despondency that the wretched man
sees everything as though it were in black, and is, in fact,
in mourning, though compelled by policy to wear the
"counterfeit mask of dissimulation." Yery often such a
victim is led to commit suicide, or becomes hypochondri-
acal or insane.
The continent man, on the other hand, is ready at any
time to enter the bridal chamber as pure as his virgin wife.
His powers remain normal, and he is not degenerated by
wrong methods of life and thought. The older he grows
the more he appreciates that his virginity is a pearl of
great price ; he is a strong man, with his appetites under
the control of his higher nature ; his speech and behavior
are not likely to be coarse and blasphemous, and his tastes
are not toward filthiness in thought, desire or action. He
is worthy to be a lover ;
" O happy she whose lips he presses !
O happy she whom he caresses !"
He walks the earth with a nobler tread for his cleanness
of physique and mind and heart; there is no uncertain
paternity haunting him, and he has pushed no woman
further down into the mire, but has rather stretched forth
his gallant arm to save.
He is what the Latin word " vir" conveys to us, rather
than a mere " Jwmo" he is virile, fit to be a lover, hus-
band, father and good citizen, and worthy to be a knight
at King Arthur's Kound Table. The chasteness of his man-
ner of life never causes him or others either physical or
mental disease, or any impairment of manly quality.
If peradventure any disease might be conceived of as
being attributable to his chastity, it would be immeasur-
ably less harmful to himself, to his wife and to his off-
spring than any of the diseases of the unchaste. But the
loss of virile power and other harms thd; are predicted for
him by the ignorant never come.
8
114 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
He has injured no other person, nor has he been foolish
enough to corrupt his own body realizing that it is sacred
beyond anything else of which he knows.
Little danger is there that his progeny will be criminals,
liars, thieves, sensualists or weaklings. He is in accord
with Nature, with human and moral law, and with love
" the greatest thing in the world." He elevates the foulest
society without being contaminated by it ; there is no scent
of loathsomeness about him ; and every tailless fox inwardly
envies him. His passions and powers are pure, full and
strong, without unnaturally occupying his mind, and when
he marries they will respond with perfect activities. He
is apt to be athletic, healthy and vigorous, partly because
he likes the kind of life which makes him so, and partly
because that mode of living conduces to cleanly manliness.
This is the only kind of man to be a man who has not
."profaned the God-given strength, and marred the lofty
line" of his ancestry, nor preyed upon and blasted his own
hopes of being the father of a fair lineage.
"He who in Pleasure's downy arms
Ne'er lost his health, or youthful charms,
A hero lives ; and justly can
Exclaim, 'In me behold a man !'
"He prospers like the slender reed
Whose top waves gently o'er the mead ;
And moves, such blessings virtue follow,
In health and beauty an Apollo.
"That power divine, which him inspires,
His breast with noblest passions fires ;
These heavenward soar with eagle flight,
And spurn the cold, dark realms of night.
" So full of majesty, a god,
Shall earth alone be his abode?
With dignity he steps, he stands,
And nothing fears ; for he commands.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IMPURITY. 115
"Like drops drawn from the crystal stream,
His eyes with pearly brilliance beam :
With blushing signs of health o'erspread,
His cheeks surpass the morning's red.
" The fairest of the female train
For him shall bloom, nor bloom in vain ;
O happy she whoes lips he presses !
O happy she whom he caresses !"*
The sufferings of the continent man, though constantly
requiring fortitude, do not compare with those of the in-
continent. If a man has been properly brought up, pro-
tected from evil practices, and not early debased by sensu-
ality, his habits become fixed, and he prizes his health
and virility too much to put them in jeopardy. Love is a
necessity of man's nature as he is constituted, and a pure
attachment for a woman whom he hopes some day to make
his wife is most desirable.
The intensity of the longing for sexual gratification is
readily given as an excuse for satisfying that craving ; but,
outside of marriage, wilful compliance with these desires
stifles the primitive, fundamental purposes of Nature,
which has designedly conferred upon every healthy indi-
vidual of either sex a lavish, bounteous and almost su-
perabundant endowment of sexual longing, the object of
which is to render certain the perpetuation of the species.
Throughout all Nature this is seen as a passion, and no
apology need be offered for saying that chaste men and
women experience this sexual passion in fuller force than
the unchaste, but not as sensuality.
This liveliness of sexual feeling makes a man and a wo-
man unite themselves in marriage ; it is the very essence
of true conjugal love the love-compelling principle of
Nature.
The silent music of the boy Cupid strikes its sweet notes
1 Burger ; quoted by Hufeland, p. 225. Old German, translated
by Erasmus Wilson, M. D.
116 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
everywhere where sexual power remains, and without it
the race would cease to exist. As Grant Allen says : " To
it we owe the paternal, maternal and marital relations;
the growth of the affections, the love of little pattering feet
and baby laughter ; the home, with all the dear associa-
tions that cluster around it; in one word, .the heart and
all that is best in it."
So we actually boast that the chaste, and that they only,
feel this sexual longing in full and natural intensity, being
tempted like those who fall, and experiencing unmistakable
yearnings which are not shameworthy, but physiological.
But rational men and women, observant of natural law and
of their brethren who have been trapped or poisoned, re-
strain themselves from indulging in unnatural and impure
practices, because they regard their own bodies and their
progeny as the most sacred things in the world.
The unchaste man prostitutes and subverts his purest
and most energizing incentive to marriage by otherwise
gratifying his longings; and he furthermore defrauds some
true woman of her legitimate chance of marriage by his
substitution of a selfish sensuality for the highest honor
of husbandship and paternity.
It surely cannot be that he knows what he is doing in
going contrary to the immutable laws of Nature, which
never fail to punish artificial infringements upon her rights
in a manner quite appreciable to our earthly senses.
It is not a light sin, this perversion of impure sexual
gratification, but the most heinous offence against Nature
opposing her prolific aims, begetting loathsome diseases,
blighting marriages, tainting offspring, and assuring an-
guish and heartrending sorrows; and, furthermore, it is
the gravest offence against religion; for we can clearly see
that if a man is so criminally and voluntarily unfit for this
world, he rightly has no inheritance in the Holy City.
To any one who may assert that there are two sides to
1 "The New Hedonism."
THE CONSEQUENCES OP IMPURITY. 117
every important question, we reply that in this case there
is no question and no room for argument. The outcome
of all records, past and present, shows that the man who
indulges in sexual irregularities is practically certain to
sooner or later undergo suffering so grave as to far out-
weigh any possible selfish gratification.
The moral sentiments of a community fashion the cus-
toms and habits of its individuals ; and those who advocate
perversions of the sexual functions which are at variance
with natural law and hygiene and morality, must be held
accountable for the physical, mental and moral retrogres-
sion and decline of human progress ; for they clash against
every argument which pleads for the welfare of the fathers
and mothers and children, and triflingly antagonize scien-
tific facts which are absolutely demonstrated to be essential
for the promise of the soundness of the race. Morality and
virtue are the machinery which render impossible the tri-
umph of the sensualists and barbarians.
A few men are naturally bad, deaf to the soft voice of
Nature, and with little sentiment of justice or humanity ;
but an acquaintance with the tremendous personal evils
which a life of lust entails might be presumed to restrain
them in their mad and wicked careers, if they have not
entirely become "sin's fools."
We look almost solely to the stupendous force of the
sexual instinct, rightfully guided by the harmony of moral-
ity and science, to advance civilization to its most fruitful
and its highest destiny.
CHAPTER IV.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER.
THE contemplation of womankind as a theme for study
cannot fail to render any right-minded man respectfully
enthusiastic over their qualities and functions, and to im-
press upon him the significance of the reciprocal relation-
ship between the sexes, and the preponderance of moral
obligation on his part.
The role of the Male in Nature is secondary to that of the
Female, for she is the Mother the Generatrix of all ani-
mate beings ; and it is more important for us to have highly
endowed mothers than fathers with like characteristics.
Woman represents the prolific energy most conspicuously,
while Man merely has the power of generating or giving
origin to life; it is the female parent who perfects and
brings forth the new life and nourishes it for many months
after parturition, and it is the male parent's duty to pro-
tect and provide for them both.
All the activities of men, with their superior inventive
and creative genius, lead to no racial improvement what-
ever unless they are directed toward the betterment of pos-
terity, the welfare of contemporaneous womanhood, and an
obedience to the laws of stirpiculture, which aims to im-
prove the nobility of the race. Reason tells us to guard,
protect and reverence this potentiality of womankind for
motherhood, which makes them the holiest of beings ; or
at the very least to bear ourselves toward them with the
same equality and consideration which is universally shown
by all animals toward their females.
. "They say that man is mighty,
He governs land and sea,
120 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
He wields a mighty sceptre
O'er lesser powers that be ;
But a mightier power and stronger
Man from his throne has hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world. " J
So the very hopes of mankind hang on our fidelity
toward women and our care of them. The distinctively
womanly qualities, which shine forth as rays from heaven
in their souls, may be quite accurately expressed by the
beautiful words, love, tenderness, gentleness, forgiveness,
mercy, pity, compassion, grace, purity, affection, sym-
pathy, charity, self-sacrifice, devotion and trustfulness;
while bravery, boldness, strength, pugnacity, courage,
pluck, self-reliance, large-heartedness, philanthropy, jus-
tice and magnanimity may be styled the attributes of ideal
and robust men.
Both sexes, at this stage of moral development in the
world's history, should have in common, as virtues of
transcendent importance, a fervent love of the truth, of
patriotism, of chastity, and a feeling of obligation to do
good. Moderation in any of these qualities is never
praised. It is universally admitted that our gentler com-
panions "pour celestial balm" on the hearts of men,
and in whatever relationship they may be to us, whether
as sisters, daughters, wives or mothers, they have well
earned the title of "ministering angels" to mankind.
"Every mother's son" of us is under obligation to the sex,
and we may well pause to consider and prevent, as far as
lies in our power, the damnable consignment of a multi-
tude of women, mostly young girls with sweetly attractive
graces, to the vilest useo known to man on earth, or con-
ceivable in hell.
It will be noticed that the essentially distinctive attri-
butes of women, which we regard as heavenly qualities of
Wallace, " What Rules the World." "
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 121
mind and heart, would be termed the symbols of strength,
were society perfect; but in the hurly-burly of a wicked
world they are in reality marked elements of weakness,
readily overcome by brutality, falsehood and imposition.
Man with his rougher qualities is fitted to stand, and re-
sembles the oak that resists, while woman with her gentler
and yielding nature, being fitted to lean, is too often like
the reed that bends, and may easily be trampled in the mire.
And yet there is a bond of relationship between men and
women which is totally unappreciated by the mass of peo-
ple, and credible to those only who have pursued anatomi-
cal and physiological studies. Embryologically, both the
feminine and the male types are fulfilled in the person of
each individual, i.e., up to the end of the third month of
intrauterine life the embryo has the sexual glands of both
sexes so perfectly developed that its future gender is still
indistinctive and uncertain ; and every man and every wo-
man forever retains in rudimentary form the traces of the
sexual organs of the opposite sex.
Eemember, then, that the human sexual organs, as well
as those of all mammals, are thus bisexual, and that the
mono-sexual type begins to develop only at the end of the
third month of foetal life.
Kraff t-Ebing ' points out the possibility that, under path-
ological conditions, the cerebral and spinal centres which
correspond with these rudimentary sexual residua may
exert an influence on the dispositions of certain individ-
uals, so that they have the feelings of the opposite sex and
a sexual inclination toward individuals of their own gen-
der, while yet possessing well-formed sexual organs.
Though it is probably never true that a man's skull can
contain the brain of a woman, yet it is highly probable
that there are rudimentary areas in the brains of all in-
dividuals which correspond with the rudimentary rem-
nants of the sexual organs of the opposite sex, and that
1 " Psychopathia Sexualis, " p. 227 et seq.
122 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
these areas in the brain substance may exert an influence
on the nervous system.
The possibilities of the female type are represented in
every man by embryological residua, such as the Miillerian
ducts, and the sinus pocularis or uterus masculinus ; the
female has the parovarium, which is the analogue of the
male epldidymis ; and so also the clitoris is the homologue
of the penis, the labia majora of the scrotum, and the
ovaries and testicles are developed from a common germ-
epithelium.
No indisputable instance of true hermaphroditism has
ever been recorded, each individual being essentially male
or female ; but cases are numerous in which there are ap-
proximations toward both sexes, with notable alterations
of the figure, gait and disposition.
Externally a man has mammae, or breasts, with well-de-
veloped nipples, and during early babyhood it is quite
commonly possible for nurses to express milk from the
breasts of infants, this being as frequently observed in one
sex as the other. At puberty, also, milk can sometimes be
expressed from the male mammae ; and " in man and some
other male mammals these organs have been known occa-
sionally to become so well developed during maturity as
to yield a fair supply of milk." *
Before puberty, both the boy and the girl are to all in-
tents and purposes of the neuter gender, and their physi-
cal and mental characters are not differentiated in any
marked degree until the development of their sexual organs
has caused them to diverge from their former somewhat
parallel course. One cannot, if he would, prevent people
saying, " He is so like his mother," or " so like his sister" ;
and it is futile for men to refuse to acknowledge some in-
fusion of the womanly characteristics into their natures,
and reprehensible for them to be ashamed of their mater-
nal inheritance. " A son, who cannot in the nature of the
1 Darwin, "The Descent of Man," p. 163.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 123
case exhibit them himself, still conveys his mother's spe-
cial feminine qualities to his daughter, having them latent
in him, as he has in him the rudimentary representatives
of the special female organs ; in like manner, a daughter
conveys her father's special masculine qualities to her son,
having them latent in her, as she has latent in her the
rudimentary special male organs. Everybody, male or
female, is essentially male and female. "
Strong men have fainted, and you may faint; strong
men have wept, and you may weep, as did Exeter over the
death of Suffolk:
" The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd ;
But I had not so much of man in me,
And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears. " 8
Shakespeare's keen perception did not fail to notice the
womanly inheritance of men, and it might be that we
should find the source of these " briny rivulets" in the fem-
inine residua which are latent within us.
Men may have all these attributes of love, tenderness,
charity, gentleness, chastity, etc., which are conceded to
be womanly, without being effeminate ; and tender women
often show "a front of iron," and more pluck, courage and
great-heartedness than the best of men.
A Jewish rabbi poetically said, "The Lord cannot be
everywhere, so He made mothers." On account of their
mission of motherhood we must regard women as holy,
and may his name be anathema who harms them by
treachery, deceit, compulsion or seduction !
The love for one's mother is so spontaneous and natural
that one hardly stops to consider why he loves her. It is
because she harbored him for ten lunar months within her
womb, suckled him at her breasts for many months more,
1 Henry Maudsley, "Pathology of the Mind," p. 49.
* Henry K, Activ., Sc. 6.
124 HEREDITY AND MORALS
educated him at her knee, sang sweet songs of comfort
him, and kissed away his bruises and sorrows, gave joy
and peace to his young soul, and pointed him to ways
which lead to immortality ; because she was pure and good,
and loved him so much that she would have given her all
for him, or have died for him.
On account of their interdependence, the tie between
mother and child is, for some years at least, very much
more intimate than that which exists between father and
child; and for many years after infancy the child will, as
a rule, run instinctively to its mother in preference to its
father.
Therefore, recollecting this, men resent nothing so much
as a slur on their mothers, and revere their names as holy
things. And yet some of these same men will thought-
lessly let us hope degrade the holiest functions of women,
and bastardize their own offspring, who are allowed to grow
up as rank weeds, with nothing but bitterness in the place
of joy, and coarse names of reproach instead of honor.
There is a widespread misconception among many per-
sons that a woman is naturally delicate and weak, and that
her chief weapon of defence is the "unanswerable tear"
which serves for her shield and spear. But there are some
considerations which argue for her excelling in some
points of strength, as she does in beauty. Like many
an unsuspecting and honest man who fails to succeed in
life by the usual worldly standard of success, so also a
woman is handicapped by her good faith, and by her
tendency to believe too much and rely too much on the
promises of men. Her faith, which rightly should be re-
garded as an element of strength, too often leads to her
ruin ; her unsuspecting nature being little adapted to pro-
tect her from the trickery and deceitful declarations which
are so often made under the guise of love.
The triumph of civilization is the predominance of moral
over physical force ; and until this is fully accomplished
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OP DEGRADING HER. 125
many women can have no chance to withstand the wicked-
ness of those men who are brutally sacrificing such of them
as are in need and unprotected for the physical gratifica-
tion of a depraved lust.
Men are superior in the coarser grades of strength ; and
woman's only hope lies in that kind of civilization in which
brutality is repressed by reason, and justice, and consider-
ation for the welfare of others.
But even in physical strength women are easily the
equals of men in staying power, for the average of their
lives is longer. "Women are not only longer-lived than
men, but have greater powers of resistance to misfortune
and deep grief. This is a well-known law. " They endure
accidents and severe surgical operations with more forti-
tude and with better chances of recovery than men, and
they were foremost in the ranks of the martyrs. 2 They
seem to withstand the vicissitudes of temperature better
than men; and it is noticeable that more blankets are
required in the male wards than in the female wards of
hospitals.
One or two nights' loss of sleep will exhaust a man,
while a woman can remain almost continuously by the sick-
bed day and night for long periods of time ; and it is un-
questionable that the power of endurance of the male nurse
cannot compete with that of the woman nurse in a pro-
tracted illness.
When the shock and storm of adversity come to a fam-
ily, sweeping away the home and all sources of support,
it is very commonly observed that the man founders under
the stress of the calamity, giving up all heart; and in such
instances, when heroic strength and fortitude are called
for, it is not infrequent for a gently nurtured wife or
daughter to put aside her finery and come to the salvation
of her family by her active exertions. In a quiet way woni-
1 Lombroso, " The Female Offender, " p. 125.
9 Vide Lecky, "History of European Morals."
126 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
en show these capabilities for endurance, and rise mag-
nificently in the face of the greatest calamities and trials.
"The tasks which demand a powerful development of
muscle and bone, and the resulting capacity for intermit-
tent spurts of energy, involving corresponding periods of
rest, fall to the man; the care of the children and all the
very various industries which radiate from the hearth, and
which call for an expenditure of energy more continuous,
but at a lower tension, fall to the woman. " 1
On the race-course the mares have been quite able to
hold the laurels for their sex ; the she-bear when bereaved
of her whelps is terrible beyond the fury of her mate, and
the simple word " mother" applied to any animal means
"hands off."
Women, though hampered by a greater complication of
sexual structure and function, nevertheless stand the wear
and tear of life fully as well as, or even better than, men;
they live longer, and, if they raise families, do more work.
They arrive at puberty and maturity earlier than men, and
there is far greater activity in their sexual spheres ; they
become women before boys become men ; their longing for
parentage is greater, so that even as children they play with
dolls, and throughout life they continue to be fond of chil-
dren. Unconsciously a woman has a desire for maternity
and an eagerness for a romance ; and her life is continually
dominated by her physical sex, whether she is married or
single, though the sensual longing is far less energetically
manifested in her than in man, and not so liable to overflow
into wrong channels.
It is essential for a woman to have a greater knowledge
of sexual hygiene of menstruation, pregnancy and lacta-
tion while sex need exercise comparatively little influence
over a man's thought and attention. A clean, pure, un-
defiled sexual feeling is thus a fundamental law in woman's
nature, for love is her element; and her sexual feeling is by
1 Havelock Ellis, "Man and Woman," p. 2.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 127
no means a light thing, but an inflexible yearning, normally,
toward an honorable maternity, which impulse is infinitely
higher in rank than the sensual passion of the libertine and
seducer. Devotion is an attribute of strength, and women
have that in greater degree than men ; love is also an attri-
bute of strength implying ardor, and for it a woman will
brave all dangers, or bear disgrace, and victimize her-
self, by reason of her very nature, for the welfare of the
beloved object. Everything is sacrificed for this love
toward her offspring and partner, whether in honor or dis-
honor.
On the other hand, sensual men follow an unnatural role
and display a cowardly weakness when they stain their
own offspring with the bastard's inheritance, and when
they give them mothers with tarnished names ; they fulfil
no duties to their illegitimate children, usually abandoning
both them and the mothers, or at most contributing in a
niggardly way to their support, but not at the loss of a
single jot of their own comfort or advantage. The out-
raged mother, by reason of the strength of her maternal
love, will, however, expend her all for her child of shame
endure infamy, shield it, and fight for it as will a tigress
for her cubs.
Outside of the marriage relationship, no man can indulge
in the act of love without offending the dictates of his
moral nature and of his manhood. Like a coward the
fallen man slinks away from the disgrace and responsibil-
ity of his act, refusing to acknowledge his own child, and
abandoning to her deplorable infamy the lovable woman,
thinking to place a market value on her shame.
In trifles many men display before the gentler sex gal-
lantries fit for the drawing-room, but in the great affairs of
life this conduct is often put aside, and those women who
are unprotected are driven to the wall, being the " weaker
vessels" indeed in the infamous work of marring Creation's
plan and perverting the promptings of Nature. Men de-
128 HEREDITY A^TD MORALS.
sire outward decorations and recognition of their noble-
ness and grandeur ; if there is a great effort called for, or
a wild beast to fight, the man goes out to do battle for the
family, and never tires of hearing his wife and children
and neighbors praise and honor his heroism, and call him
a strong, noble man. He likes praise, flattery, and an ap-
preciated record, and desires orders and medals for his
service to such a degree that he is unique in the animal
kingdom as a medal-wearing animal.
Women, on the other hand, are heroic from love, and
content themselves with the inner consciousness of right
not receiving and not expecting fame or applause, and get-
ting no outward decorations for their kind of heroism.
Women say that men are brave and strong ; men control
literature and human activities, agree with the women in
their judgments, decorate each other with honors and
medals, and, with a questionable magnanimity, have styled
themselves the strong sex ! And yet in sexual matters they
have in many instances acted the part of cowards and pol-
troons, heaping infamy on the illegitimate child who is
absolutely innocent of all harm, outcasting the mother who
comes next in innocence, and in a large measure absolving
themselves, who are the principals in the appalling dis-
aster.
Man, who has a predominant position in the world, is
both "the glory and the shame of the universe," the latter
characteristic being very largely due to the perversion of
his sexual role in Nature.
The foregoing observations of course have their excep-
tions, and, after all, men and women are brothers and
sisters; the man's mother was a woman, and from her he
inherits beauties of character, and the woman's father was
a man, and from him she inherits ennobling qualities. The
two sexes, in fact, have more in common than is dreamed
of in the philosophy of a thoughtless person.
But yet the two sexes are divergent in physique, func-
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 129
tions, education and inclinations, for "a man is a man
even to his thumbs, and a woman is a woman down to her
little toes." 1
Normal man has a profound chivalrous feeling for wom-
an which is far superior to the mere equality shared by
animals with their females ; and in any shipwreck he will
unhesitatingly say, " Women and children first !" protect-
ing them at every cost to himself, and shielding them from
imposition and degradation.
But if corrosive impurity is harbored in his breast, this
natural nobility of character becomes blighted, and his acts
of gallantry are nothing but superficialities.
Candor compels us to admit that innumerable men have
become so infamously perverted from the true spirit of
manliness that they harm, destroy, and tyrannize over that
portion of womankind who are under no protection, and
who, by reason of their ignorance of the world, are unequal
to the task of meeting -them in competition. Women rarely
harm men, but men are rough playfellows to them shame
'on our sex! Since history has been recorded, men have
been rough to them ; but shall we in this glorious age of
enlightenment continue such an infamous business? What
true man can join in sucli sport !
Effeminacy is not to be attributed to the pure, chaste
men who are sympathetic and tender and valiant in their
protection of women and their offspring, nor can such men
see any excuse for the unmanliness of those who sport with
women's most priceless possessions by pushing them down
into the river of filth, and merely feeding them with such
requisites and luxuries as will serve to keep them in condi-
tion for the satisfaction of their gluttonous depravity. To
such lustful men we cry out : " Stop your cowardly wanton-
ness ! Abuse yourselves, if you will, by every filthy degra-
dation and defilement that is detestable to men, but leave
off your brutal coarseness with tender women, in the low-
1 Havelock Ellis, loc. tit., p. 52.
9
130 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
est of whom there is the possibility of motherhood and
reform!"
The time has come when society, at the very least,
should set aside these ghouls upon a common level with
their victims; when it should deny them entrance into
clean homes, and regard them as a diseased lot of perverted
degenerates, unfit for the holy offices of fatherhood, and as
the enemies of women, of posterity, and of civilization.
Some carnivora kill merely for the pleasure of destruc-
tion ; others, like vampires, suck the blood of their victims
and throw the carcasses aside ; and so some men pluck the
roses from maidens, and leave them, heart-broken and dis-
honored, nothing but the thorns.
The man who illegitimately becomes a father commits
against both mother and child an awful crime which can
only be atoned for by marriage ; nothing else will satisfy
both mother and child, money may appease the mother,
but never the child.
So also the man who breaks the vows made in marriage
by falling into licentiousness, bringing disease to innocent
ones, forcing separations and divorces, and degrading her
whom he has promised to cherish, is the perpetrator of an
unpardonable crime, and shows himself to be a liar whom
all decent men should shun.
TRUE MANLINESS is DEPENDENT ON PURITY.
In accordance with the ribald teachings of loudly boast-
ful and coarse men, youths too often assume to believe that
the sooner they throw away their virtue the better, think-
ing that they see in the tobacco-stained mouth, in the
whisky-laden breath, in the oath-polluted lips, in the
blustering swagger, or in the other gross indelicacies of
the rough, those qualities which will make them manly
and gain for them their ambitions to be called " men about
town" and "men of the world."
To be brave is of course the first desire of normal men,
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 131
and all abhor the charge of effeminacy, which means that
one has those qualities which in a man are contemptible
weaknesses, making one a milksop, weak and spiritless.
A chaste life could not be advocated if it even pointed in
that direction, for then the continent man would be over-
whelmed with shame. It is, however, the impure life
which either effeminates or else compels a naturally brave
man to do things which he knows are abhorrent to his
sense of manhood. Because of the great and overpowering
importance which is conceded by all to manly courage, it
is transcendently necessary that we should understand
why licentiousness is impossible for a normally brave man.
Loquaciousness, boastfulness, swagger, cursing, and self-
assertive braggadocio will not pass for courage among us.
" How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk."
Merchant of Venice, Act iii., Sc. 2.
Such men as these, as well as many of the heroes of
romance and poetry, are as much inferior to the genuine
flesh-and-blood heroes of real life as a paper flower is in-
ferior to the natural blossom when seen in its full beauty
under the searching clearness of the microscope.
" Of course the greatest type of manhood, or the type
wherein our ideal of manliness reaches its highest expres-
sion, is where the virtues of strength are purged from its
vices. To be strong and yet tender, brave and yet kind, to
combine in the same breast the temper of a hero with the
sympathy of a maiden this is to transform the ape and
the tiger into what we know ought to constitute the man."
The mam who does not inhibit his sexual longings gives
a bitter seasoning to his life, and throws away the elements
of strength which must be conserved in order to secure a
manly type of physique and mind. Effeminacy is readily
1 George J. Romanes, Popular Science Monthly, 1887, p. 389.
132 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
apparent in those who squander their sexuai force ; and all
physiologists agree that the fundamental characteristics of
manhood fail to appear in the individual if he has too early
in life sacrificed at the altar of lust. By " too early in life"
physiologists mean before the period of consolidation, or
maturity, i.e., twenty -five years of age, before which time
a man should not marry. The physique is unquestionably
injured if a young man abuse his reproductive powers to
any considerable extent, and Krafft-Ebing 1 says: "It is
psychologically interesting that when the sexual element
is early vitiated, then an ethical defect is manifested."
The ancients, regarding profligacy and effeminacy as in-
separable, always demanded continence from those heroic
men to whom they looked for deeds of valor or master-
pieces of intellect. Strict continence was also the rule
among the ancient German warriors, whose heroic deeds
were inspired by a loyalty to their beloved ones.
" I find great wisdom in this use of physical love, one of
the strongest motives by which human nature is actuated.
How widely different has the case become among us ! This
propensity which by prudent management may be made
the germ of the most exalted virtue, of the greatest hero-
ism, has degenerated into whining sensibility, or mere
sensual gratification, which people enjoy prematurely, and
even to satiety ; the passion of love, which in those pe-
riods [old German] was a security against dissipation, is
at present the source of the greatest; the virtue of chas-
tity, the principal foundation, without doubt, of moral
firmness and manliness of character, has become a sub-
ject of ridicule, and is decried as old-fashioned pedan-
try ; and what ought to be the last and sweetest reward of
toil, labor, and danger has become a flower which every
stripling crops by the way." a
1 Loc. tit., p. 44.
2 Htifeland's "Art of Prolonging Life," pp. 227, 228. Translated
from the German by Erasmus Wilson, M.D.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 133
The essentials of manliness are conceded to be mani-
fested by a deep reverence for women, the protection of
the weak, and unostentatious chivalry toward those who
are harassed by misfortune, or who are unable to cope with
the stronger in the battle of life. But this is precisely
what a licentious man does not and cannot do, for he finds
his easiest and most accustomed prey, as a rule, among those
who are young and unsuspecting or deeply unfortunate.
The gentle, soft, yielding, and confiding natures of wom-
en, which should hedge them around with a wall of strength
for their protection, become frail weaknesses when exposed
to the machinations of such men. If a woman has once
slipped, these men's hands are against her; if she arrives
unprotected in a strange city, methods are applied to lead
her on to destruction merely for the sake of wanton pleas-
ure, there never being an intention on the part of the men
to share any portion of the responsibility or shame, but
they abandon her to any fate rather than suffer the slight-
est harm themselves.
Such men do to these women those things for doing
which to their sisters or daughters they would at once slay
another man. Instead of showing sympathy, or contrib-
uting money to help in their reformation, they wantonly
bear a share in keeping them down in the bottom-lands of
infamy. If pregnancy be a result of their immoral union,
the bastard children are abandoned to the mother's care,
and the only effective way of righting the wrong, by mar-
riage, is laughed to scorn.
DECEIT AND FALSEHOOD ARE INSEPARABLY CONNECTED
WITH IMPURITY.
The making and telling of lies is universally recognized
to be but a mere incident in connection with impurity, and
without exception fornicators must lie for a falsehood is
the necessary handle to sin.
134 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Of all conceivable things, a lie is the most despicable;
and he who lacks the courage to tell the truth is admittedly
an infamous coward who has annihilated the dignity of his
manhood. Fortunate is he who advances year by year,
always transferring to the future the telling of his first lie !
No cloud casts such a sombre shade over a man's life as
this simple word "liar." The telling of one deliberate un-
truth is a tragedy in one's life. Just think of its import!
It means that (he person who violated the truth will, under
pressure, do the same thing again ; it means that that in-
dividual can never be implicitly trusted again. If we de-
tect a man in even one false statement, we reserve to our-
selves the privilege forever after of using our own judg-
ment whether we shall trust him again. One lie is so
terrible because it shatters a man's trustworthiness; for if
a person tells one deliberate falsehood, the tendency is in
his nature, and he will repeat it whenever convenient.
Therefore if a man is known to be a liar, the author puts
him upon his reliable list ; for he can be depended on to
lie again, and is indeed re-lie-able. Evidently it cannot be
manly to enter upon any course which necessitates the
telling of lies ; but a hundred instances will come to mind
to show that fornicators must lie, sometimes to the women,
sometimes to the hotel clerks when they register under
assumed names, sometimes to their households, sometimes
to the police, and sometimes even to their doctors, while
as a rule they do so habitually, having acquired the ethical
defect which is always manifested by those who pollute the
most manly elements of their natures.
Impurity surely unmans, and the unchaste man, the dis-
eased man, the illegitimate father, the profaner and dese-
crator of the standards of chivalry, the liar, cannot hold
his head up and look one straight in the face except by a
brazen effrontery.
An old professor of surgery at Edinburgh University
used to say, when the author was a student there, that he
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OP DEGRADING HER. 135
could tell a venereal patient at a glance by his peculiar
shamefaced, "crab-like gait," a one-sided, shifting step.
A venereal patient simply cannot look manly ; all that is,
temporarily at least, gone from him.
Just reflect that a man in order to counterbalance all
these terrible responsibilities can only offer the single ex-
cuse of the gratification of an immoral impulse. The pen-
alties immeasurably outweigh the pleasures : the crown of
manhood must be laid down, and the throne of self-respect
abdicated. Criminals are noted for their lack of compas-
sion and their deficiency in the altruistic feeling, and a sen-
sual man must necessarily be at least a moral criminal on
account of his egoism and utter carelessness of the welfare
of others. The perfidy of lewd men is something exe-
crable ; but the ages have not taught a large number of
women to beware of their snares, or "to analyze their prom-
ises, which are often made under the cloak of love, or to see
that these men are working with devil's tools, or to appre-
ciate the vastly more momentous outcome of sexual inter-
course to themselves.
TJie cowardliness of immoral men toward women is self-
apparent. It is a commonly accepted opinion that modern
civilization demands absolute chastity in women. Not at
all! Just consider how the matter stands. Those men
who argue that impurity is a necessity, reason that this
vice should be widely diffused throughout the male sex,
but concentrated in a few of the other sex. That the
women who are to be degraded must be healthy, young,
and attractive, is a matter of course, and though they are
to be martyred for a supposed public good, yet they are to
be excluded from society and dedicated to the satiation of
all the coarse and perverted instincts of humanity. The
women are to have all the bitterness heaped upon them,
and that without hope ; the brothel is to open its hungry
door for them, and then to shut, never to reopen.
This sensual dallying with the holiest functions ci worn-
136. HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ankind lias in it all the essential elements of cowardice,
and no normally brave man can for a moment consent to
be a party to such a perversion of the male role in Nature.
" From the earliest times of which we have historical
knowledge there have always been men who have recog-
nized the distinction between the nobler and baser parts of
their being. They have perceived that if they would be
men, and not beasts, they must control their animal pas-
sions, prefer truth to falsehood, courage to cowardice, jus-
tice to violence, and compassion to cruelty. These are the
elementary principles of morality, on the recognition of
which the welfare and improvement of mankind depend,
and human history has been little more than a record of
the struggle which began at the beginning and will con-
tinue to the end between the few who have had ability to
see into the truth and loyalty to obey it, and the multitude
who by evasion or rebellion have hoped to thrive in spite
of it." 1
THE NATURE or THE LOVE OF MEN AND WOMEN.
Zangwill (" Without Prejudice," p. 180) has pointed out
that " when you start learning a new language you always
find yourself confronted with the verb 'to love' invariably
the normal type of the first conjugation. In every lan-
guage on earth the student may be heard declaring with
more zeal than discretion that he and you and they and
every other person, singular or plural, have loved, and do
love, and will love. 'To love ' is the model verb, express-
ing the archetype of activity. . . . Not merely have people
loved unconditionally in every language, but there is none
in which they would not have loved, or might not have
loved, had circumstances permitted; none in which they
have not been loved, or (for hope springs eternal in the
human breast) have been about to be loved."
1 " Short Studies on Great Subjects, " Froude, p. 18.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 137
The great effort of Maternal Nature is to people the earth
with living beings, while Plastic Nature shapes it. All
Nature is incessantly at work striving to accomplish these
two ends, and, in order that the perpetuation of the species
may be assured, she provides, in a remarkably lavish man-
ner, an enormous excess of reproductive elements, and an
imperious biological instinct, or sexual appetite, which, in
plain words, is sexual love.
As Letourneau says 1 : " This amorous efflorescence is,
after all, the first cause of marriage and of the family."
The reason for the existence of love is, biologically, simply
to bring about the union of two minute cells the sper-
matozoon and the ovum all other charms and fascina-
tions, which are associated in our minds as belonging to
the domain of love, centring in this one deep and natural
source. 2
Every menstrual period of the female and every nocturnal
emission of semen by the male are merely expressions of
Nature's desire that the species shall be propagated. Nor
is the perpetuation of the species left to a mere chance, as
among the wind- and water-fertilized plants, in which in-
stances the agencies of the elements are depended upon to
disseminate the pollen; but it is rendered certain by the
all-conquering force of a natural instinct secondary only to
the primal law of self-preservation. This overpowering
impulse is the sexual instinct, or sexual love.
Thus Nature employs the force of the love-compelling
sexual instinct to constrain males and females to mate in
order to ensure a fulfilment of her designs, and not for a
moment does she leave the future of the race to the caprice
or whims of fickle mankind.
Thus sexuality is at the bottom of all true conjugal love ;
1 " The Evolution of Marriage, " p. 6.
Man is classified among the animals as a " bimanous, mammifer-
ous vertebrate, " and the origin of his social desires is unquestion-
ably to be found in his animal nature.
138 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and where there is no sexual attraction between individuals
of opposite sexes, there can be nothing but a platonic love,
which, being free from sexual longings, is merely friend-
ship.
Among animals the manifestation of this law works along
normal lines, and instances of perversions in which mere
sensuality is practised are exceedingly exceptional among
them. Thus Letourneau 1 mentions as exceptions of gross-
ness that "the stupid tatoways [armadillos] meet by
chance, smell each other, copulate and separate with the
greatest indifference. Our domestic dog himself, although
so civilized and affectionate, is generally as gross in his
amours as the tatoway." In the same way some men,
"although so civilized and affectionate," easily purchase
animal love from prostitutes ; but between this and a noble
monogamic love there is the widest possible difference.
This normal sexual instinct, then, actuates men and
women to love each other, to pair off in marriage, to found
homes, and to provide for the expected offspring; and
sexual feelings exercise a directive power over most of the
activities of life moulding our religion, our literature, our
art, our etiquette, and, in short, influencing almost every
impulse of human endeavor which is not attributable to self-
preservation. " Were man to be robbed of the instinct of
procreation and all that arises from it mentally, nearly all
poetry and, perhaps, the entire moral sense, as well, would
be torn from his life" (Maudsley).
The fulfilment of the promptings of sexual love, being a
law of Nature, is a pure and chaste communion when it has
in view the perpetuation of the species, and when it is ex-
ercised in the married state ; but the lascivious gratifica-
tion of sensual desire, which transgresses natural laws and
actually aims to violate them, is a marked perversion which
places those who indulge in it in a class by themselves be-
low the level of the brutes.
l Loc. cit., p. 16.
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OP DEGRADING HER. 139
Rightfully guided, this generative passion leads to the
fullest enjoyments of life, such as home, wife and chil-
dren, and to morality and every virtue. It is our most
priceless heritage when experienced in its pure and natural
glow, but is not to be trifled with without incurring the
most inexorable punishments, notably the pollution of the
very fountain-source of love. Among human beings, the
simple physical enjoyment of the act of intercourse with-
out a mental state at least akin to love cannot be anything
but a disappointment ; for it is wholly impossible to divorce
the psychical from the physical sensations in this relation-
ship. Therefore, as before pointed out, lewd men, whose
brains have retained all kinds of corrupt impressions, often
cannot enjoy the sexual act without substituting some
sham in their imaginations which cheats them into the be-
lief that they entertain feelings akin to love for their mis-
tresses. But love can be genuine only when the memory
is not tinctured with corrupt impressions, and when the
man and woman long to possess each other, body and soul,
in the relationship of husband and wife. Such love brings
tranquillity and joy dependent on a realization that the
creative act is the highest function of manhood and woman-
hood, and on a full confidence that there is no moral or
physical sin in the act; for pledges are given that they
shall be mutually responsible for the results of intercourse.
In man the longing for sexual intercourse is naturally more
powerful than it is in woman, so that his role is that of
aggressiveness in courtship; but on the other hand, sex
dominates a woman far more, and by far the greater pro-
portion of the reproduction and early nurture of the race
is laid on her, so that she may well be deemed the most
exalted of all created beings by reason of her physical
nature.
The sensual gratification which a woman experiences in
coition is normally not the chief pleasure, but to her the
enjoyment of the act is the sum of the lustful satisfaction,
140 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
plus the "love touch," plus the kisses and caresses, plus
the feeling of confidence that her husband will fulfil his
share of parental responsibility.
The sensual factor is much more powerful in man than
in woman, and a man's love is naturally not so deep and
lasting as a woman's for to her love means everything in
life, while to him it is merely one of the great delights of
life. As Madame de Stael said : " Love is the history of
woman's life; it is an episode in man's."
A shock to a woman's real love is almost a mortal blow,
while a man more readily recovers himself and finds another
object ; but the more he is effeminated by sensuality, the
more dependent he becomes on women, and the more liable
he is to be ruined by a series of counterfeit love affairs.
Woman loves more specially the soul of the man and the
attributes of his mind and heart, and when she becomes a
mother she shares her love between the child and her hus-
band. Sexual passion in its full force exercises far more
influence over the life of a woman, for not only is her cor-
poreal condition dominated by her physical sex, but her
husband represents the only possible means of gratification
for her sexual longings meaning by this far more than the
mere voluptuous embrace.
Men who have been passion's slaves, whether by onan-
ism or venery, or men who have had the pure promptings
of the sexual instinct vitiated by disease or impure mental
stains, are incapable of loving truly. Such individuals find
the chief object of their love in the voluptuous side of
women's characteristics ; but such an over-sensual love can-
not remain constant and true after desire has failed, nor if
a greater degree of satisfaction can be illegitimately ob-
tained elsewhere.
A form of love which is outside the bounds of physio-
logical love, and quite peculiar to the human race, is a
"romantic love" of an extravagant, wild, imaginative and
idealized form. It is of course wholly unnatural, being
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 141
indicative of a mental sickliness, and belonging only to
those who have not thrown off the sentimental thraldom
of youth. Komantic love comparatively seldom leads to
marriage, and its subtle spell is not to be compared to the
pure glow of a physiological love. It deals principally
with the wooings and cooings and sonnets Which are on
the borders of love-land, but not with such impulses as
spring from true sources of love. In such alliances, when
romance dies, love dies. Heal love is intensely sexual
without being sensual. Keal love knits souls together so
that one would unhesitatingly suffer all extremes for the
other.
The feminine grace of a modest and well-bred woman in-
fluences her to be reserved and unaggressive, and a woman
who makes the advances in courtship is an anomaly. And
yet love is a woman's very life, and a necessity to her far
more than it is to a man.
The penalties of dallying with chastity mean almost cer-
tain ruin to a woman, because maternity will probably fol-
low any indiscreet interchange of embraces on her part,
and at the best her genitals usually retain permanently the
marks of injury by the violator, so that after a single
lapse from virtue she forfeits her right to expect marriage
or love, while the man escapes these penalties.
After intercourse the man speedily loses sensual desire,
and all the effects on him are trivial in comparison with
the results to her, for, in addition to the physical perils of
unchaste intercourse, she suffers a deeper and more lasting
mental impression which painfully degrades her purer char-
acter. A woman's modest, confiding and yielding nature
fills her whole soul with a trustful and perfect love toward
the one to whom she has committed herself ; and she has
always been too ready to put her whole faith in a man after
he has once gained her love, and has too often believed him
and relied upon him outside of the bonds of matrimony. It
would seem unkind to Satan himself to believe that he
142
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
would use the compelling influence of a thing so sweet as
love to further his diabolical plans; but there are men
everywhere who persuade their victims into the belief that
a sensual love between them excuses the gratification of
their passions, and then abandon them.
A woman's true sphere is within the shelter of a home
which she adorns with the fair lustre of her virtues, sup-
ported and protected by her husband, and in the full enjoy-
ment of the sacred delights of maternity. But all of them
cannot be so fortunate ; and it is those very women who are
in the greatest need of consideration, and who must face
the world alone, whom men, as a rule, do not treat defer-
entially. Disadvantages are always heaped upon them;
they are insulted in the streets if unprotected ; their wages
are less for equal work done ; little thought is taken by their
employers as to how they can subsist honorably ; and dia-
bolically inclined men are always about, striving to lure
them to their ruin by arts which sometimes deceive and
sometimes compel.
Men rarely boast of having accomplished the ruin of a
girl ; but if she has taken a single false step, or even de-
parted in the slightest degree from the proprieties of
womanhood, their hands are against her to prevent her
from rising or recovering from her error.
Society maintains that a lapse from virtue on a woman's
part is unpardonable, because of the risks peculiar to her ;
but the man who is her partner is morally blameworthy to
a far greater degree, since he, as the principal, is the ag-
gressor. Not necessarily realizing his vileness, he never-
theless is corrupt, untrue and debased. In fact, he is on
a moral plane below that of the tatoways.
Men have always controlled the laws as well as literature,
and have invariably legislated to their own advantage re-
garding women as the weaker sex and unfit to have any
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 143
voice in government. But men have demonstrated that they
are not truly gallant or kind toward women and the weaker
members of society ; for they have heaped the most unfair
restrictions upon them, and have plainly shown the insin-
cerity of their professed respect for womanhood.
. Within the recollection of the present generation the con-
dition of women has changed enormously for the better
since they have taken the higher education; and therein
lies their promise of safety ; for if they trust to the unin-
fluenced generosity of men to grant them even decent
rights, they will be disappointed. Until women began to
take an interest in affairs of state, all laws which aimed to
better their condition invariably met with effectual opposi-
tion, and whatever improvements have taken place in leg-
islation regarding public morals are attributable almost
solely to women and their influence. Because women have
been silent, men have been led to believe that they are in-
different to public morals ; but, though it is characteristic
of women to close their eyes and avert their heads at the
sight or suggestion of horrible things, yet many noble ones
among them have bravely fought for the betterment of their
social condition with the grandest results. Women are at
bottom the real authors of the recent laws which have been
enacted in many of our States raising the " age of consent"
from eight or ten years to fourteen, sixteen, and in some
instances eighteen years of age.
The technical term " age of consent" denotes the age at
which a girl can consent to her own seduction without in-
crimination of the violator. These statutes vary in the dif-
ferent civilized countries, but' in all of them carnal knowl-
edge of a girl under statutory age is punishable as jrape,
even though she consent.
It is a strange anomaly that a girl cannot make con-
tracts or marry without parental consent until she is
eighteen years of age, and that a man, though not per-
mitted by law to make her his wife, may yet with impu-
144 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
nity make her his mistress before she has attained that
age.
In some States the " age of consent" has been fixed by
law at seven years (Delaware); in many others at ten
years, and in others at varying ages up to eighteen years.
At the earlier ages the unsuspecting child does not, of.
course, at all appreciate the significance of the sexual act,
or the shame and physical injury to which she is sub-
jected. 1
In England, in 1885, the " age of consent" was, by the
influence of women, raised from thirteen to sixteen years
of age; and without doubt the time is soon coming when
1 The Philanthropist for March, 1896, published the following
data:
"PROTECTION FOR GIRLHOOD.
" During the year we have again secured an official statement, as
given by the secretaries of the several States of the Union, concern-
ing the age-of -consent laws. As a result we present the following :
"In four States Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Alabama the Age of Consent is fixed at the shocking low age of ten
years. In four States Kentucky, Virginia, Nevada and West Vir-
ginia the age is fixed at twelve years. In three States New
Hampshire, Utah and Iowa at thirteen years. In the State of
Maryland, in Maine, in Vermont, in Indiana, in North Dakota, in
Georgia, in Illinois, and in California, at fourteen years. In Ne-
braska and Texas the age limit is fifteen years. In New Jersey, in
Massachusetts, in Michigan, Montana, South Dakota, Oregon, Rhode
Island, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, the age is six-
teen years. In Tennessee, sixteen years and one day. In Florida,
seventeen years. In New York, Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado,
eighteen years. In Delaware, the original statute pertaining to the
crime of rape is still unrepealed, fixing the age at seven years, but
the last legislature passed an amended act which, practically, is de-
signed to extend legal protection in that State to young girls to the
limit of eighteen years.
" There is urgent need of added legislation to more adequately pro-
tect minors of both sexes against sexual defilement. The Alliance
has under consideration, in connection with a committee of jurists,
a measure to meet this need. "
WOMAN, AND THE UNMANLINESS OF DEGRADING HER. 145
carnal knowledge of a girl under eighteen years of age will
everywhere be punishable by law as rape.
In most of the interests of life the conditions affecting
the sexes are identical ; but one sex alone has never been
able to and never can justly or intelligently govern the pe-
culiar relationships of the two sexes ; and for the proper
adjustment of these natural differences the counsel of
women is imperatively required. How can legislators,
many of whom are notoriously corrupt, be relied upon to
legislate favorably for women when they have no proper
respect for them, nor appreciation of the evils and dangers
of prostitution and its concomitant disease, illegitimacy,
and criminal abortion?
The mere sentiment of women has often proved sufficient
to defeat the election of legislators of impure fame ; and the
time seems to be fast coming when they will have the fran-
chise, which is far more powerful than sentiment; and
when that responsibility is accorded, and when they have
accepted it, it may confidently be predicted, so the author
thinks, that the world will improve at a bound. * Respect
1 " I have been seeking for some years a good, sound reason why
women should net vote, and I have, after diligent search, found one,
and only one. It is because they are women. There is no other, so
far as I have yet been able to discover, which rises above the frivo-
lous. . . .
" When the war closed, many millions of men and women were
made free. In order to enable them to protect their freedom, it was
deemed necessary to place the ballot in the hands of the free-mew.
It did not apparently matter so much about the women ; because, it
is presumed, it was thought they could protect themselves or could
lean upon the chivalry of the men. With all the power of the United
States to back up the government, the black man had still for his
protection to be endowed with the ballot. The women could get
along without it, beause they were women. The only qualifications
were that the voter should be of age and a man. It would have
been well to add another qualification that he should be able to read
and write.
" The next time we extend the suffrage it is to be hoped we will not
10
146 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
for womanhood is the great distinguishing mark of su-
periority of our modern times over the ancient civilizations,
so we all believe ; and we realize that when she who is the
centre of home life ceases to be respected by men, or fails
to uphold her own dignity, then society will be under-
mined and corrupted.
If men are wise, and if they are earnest in their desires
for a high state of civilization, they will not oppose the
noble efforts of women by ridicule, but rather seek their
counsel for in the near future we shall be compelled to pay
tribute to the justice, and humanity, and equality which
they will have instilled into our hearts and into our laws.
repeat the same mistake, but bestow on women who can read and
write the right to cast a ballot. Once in possession of the franchise,
it would be strange, indeed, if she did not make a better use of it
than ignorance and degradation have ever succeeded in doing.
"That the day for the enfranchisement of women in this country is
coming cannot be doubted by any one capable of reading the very ap-
parent signs which have been shown for some years past. One of the
most remarkable of these signs is the desperate struggle those op-
posed to woman suffrage are making to prevent its accomplishment.
Desperate struggles are not made against attacks less formidable and
persistent than those which have been waged so long in favor of
placing woman on the same legal level with man, by putting in her
hand the only weapon competent for her protection. " " Why Women
Should Have the Ballot," by General John Gibbon, U, S. A., in The
North American Review, July, 1896.
CHAPTEE V.
SOME OF THE INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL
IMMORALITY.
The Abuse of Spirituous Liquors is pre-eminently one of
the leading factors which promote licentiousness, and the
reason is not far to seek for alcohol notably enfeebles the
powers of resistance, confuses the reason, and at the same
time awakens and stimulates the desire for sexual gratifi-
cation by allowing the lower animal passions to transcend
the higher.
No healthy person is benefited by the use of any fer-
mented or distilled drink, and probably the habitual use of
any liquor which contains alcohol is injurious to the
normal person.
Alcoholic beverages are especially dangerous to the
Anglo-Saxon and the Celt, since the tendency in these
races is to rashly increase the amount of the alcohol until
moderation is set aside.
Medicinally the stimulants are invaluable, and they have
been called " the milk of old people" ; but at best they are
sharp-edged tools, and quite unsuitable for the ordinary
individual.
Not to enter into an elaborate discussion, there can,
however, be no dispute that the saloons are the dissemina-
tors of everything obscene and impure, and the very light-
houses of hell.
148 HEREDITY AND MORALS,
DANCING, AND THE IMMODESTIES OF DRESS.
In the ballroom many unappreciated influences are at
work to excite the fancies, which may operate as visual,
auditory, olfactory, or tactile impressions.
Except in childhood and old age the neuter periods of
life, when the vita sexualis is not largely influencing the
thoughts and feelings most men are naturally more or less
excited by close approach to an attractive individual of the
opposite sex, as are all animals ; and this excitation is felt
in greater intensity if the woman dress so as to accentu-
ate and bring into prominence her secondary sexual char-
acteristics ; and the various fetiches of dress and personal
adornment exert even a stronger spell when the woll-known
physiological effects of perfumes 1 and seductive music are
superadded.
Dr. Galopin quaintly says, " Love begins at the nose" ;
and every physiologist is well aware of the intimacy be-
tween the olfactory and sexual centres. This need not be
further elucidated in this connection, though the matter is
of importance in showing how the whole keyboard of the
emotions may be played upon by sensuous stimuli.
1 "Owing to the close relations which exist between the sexual in-
stinct and the olfactory sense, it is to be presumed that the. sexual
and olfactory centres lie close together in the cerebral cortex. . . .
Among animals, the influence of olfactory perceptions on the sexual
sense is unmistakable. Althaus declares that the sense of smell is
important with reference to the reproduction of the species. . . .
Althaus also shows that in man there are certain relations between
the olfactory and sexual senses. ... In the Orient the pleasant per-
fumes are esteemed for their relation to the sexual organs, and the
women's apartments of the Sultan are filled with the perfumes of
flowers." -KrarTt-Ebing, loc. cit., pp. 26, 27, quod vide. Krafft-
Ebing also mentions, on the authority of other observers, the odor of
the sweat as being productive of sexual excitation. He, however,
is inclined to doubt the importance of olfactory impressions in rela-
tion to the sexual appetite in normal men.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 149
Furthermore, when the punch-bowl is a prominent fea-
ture of the entertainment, it will at once be perceived that
hardly anything more voluptuous and alluring could be
devised ; and it may safely be affirmed that for many of
the guests at least the modern ball affords what we may
call a secondary sexual love-feast. The greatest enjoy-
ment is presumably experienced by those who are lustfully
inclined such individuals making it a point to attend all
kinds of balls, where they mentally revel in their fancies.
It is not to be thought that women, or that most men even,
realize what they are doing upon such occasions ; but never-
theless they are blindly led on by customs which forever
tend toward licentiousness and rapid living. There is a
habit of laughing at ministers of the gospel who thunder
out denunciations against dancing, but from a purely
medical standpoint the customs of the ballroom are per-
fectly indefensible. It is certainly most noteworthy that
old route, when speaking seriously, heartily disapprove of
dancing and the costuming which is considered a necessary
part of it, on the ground that they stimulate the passions
and pave the way to familiarity and even worse lapses. In
opposing such a popular institution we tread on delicate
ground indeed, so that we may anticipate the strongest dis-
approval from many quarters unless the subject is atten-
tively analyzed. But from the well-informed physician,
the humanitarian, the student of the times, and from the
experienced man of the world, we confidently expect a
unanimous verdict of approval. Among animals, the male
is endowed with greater natural beauty ; but men, for their
own selfish reasons, love to designate women as the beau-
tiful sex, and delight to see them adorn themselves with
beautiful apparel and jewels, the underlying reason for
which is well understood to have its origin in the sensual
inclinations of men.
None can deny or doubt that women, whether consciously
or unconsciously, endeavor to adapt themselves to the fan-
150 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
cies of men, and the reason that they make themselves so
attractive is to be found in the desire to arrest and retain
the notice of the opposite sex; and on this account, and
this alone, new fashions come and go, so that when one
eccentricity of style has become familiar, another mode is
suddenly adopted which compels attention.
" It should be noted that among savages it is, as a rule,
the man only that runs the risk of being obliged to lead a
single life. Hence it is obvious that to the best of his
ability he must endeavor to be taken into favor by making
himself as attractive as possible. In civilized Europe, on
the other hand, the opposite occurs. Here it is the
woman that has the greatest difficulty in getting married
and she is also the vainer of the two."
The tendency of the human race is constantly toward
exaggeration; and this is observed by. anthropologists,
among both savage and civilized peoples, in the promi-
nence which is given to those parts of the body that are
especially preferred. 2
Thus the Chinese women bind their feet; the savage
pierces the ears and nose, and wears the hair in a grotesque
manner, besides otherwise compelling attention to the ana-
tomical peculiarities by tattooing, ornaments, etc. ; the
harlot dyes her hair and applies pigment round her eyes to
accentuate their brilliancy ; and in innumerable ways hu-
man beings strive to make themselves sexually attractive.
The wearing of labrets and lip-rings ; the piercing of the
ears and nose for the reception of ornaments ; the customs
of tattooing and painting; the predilection for rings and
anklets and bangles and bracelets and necklaces and girdles ;
1 Westermarck, " History of Human Marriage, " p. 185.
8 " It is noteworthy that in all parts of the world the desire for
self-decoration is strongest at the beginning of the age of puberty, all
the above-named customs [mutilation, tattooing, ornamentation,
etc.] being practised most zealously at that period of life. "Wester-
marck, loc. cit. t p. 173.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 151
the blackening and filing of the teeth; the pride in the
adornment of the hair; the enthusiasm for beads, and all
the multitudinous customs of ornamentation, are univer-
sally said by travellers, and by those who are versed in
the science of man, to be designed for the attraction of the
opposite sex the reasons given being summed up, as
Westermarck so well puts it, by the expressions, "to be
agreeable to the women," or "to make herself a delicious
morsel for the arms of an ardent lover." 1 Among the
women of civilized countries there is also this most marked
tendency to make prominent those parts which are consid-
ered the attributes of feminine beauty ; and nowhere, not
even at the seashore, is this so well exemplified as in the
ballroom.
The ancient Greeks and Romans costumed themselves
with graceful and loosely flowing tunics, which served to
drape them becomingly without unduly marking the dis-
similarity between the sexes, and without making the
sexual characteristics of anatomy too prominent. But,
while modern men do not dress immodestly or sensuously,
the same cannot be said of the toilettes of many women,
since their costumes are often not so much adapted for
utility as for accentuating too agreeably the sexual points
of their beauty and displaying their figures. In fact, the
"girl of the period" is characterized too largely by her
clothes, and she suggests too much the mysteries of the
toilette, paying too little attention to her physical charms
and too much to her finery in short, she overdresses. 2
It is easily to be seen that fashionable women emphasize
those parts of the anatomy which constitute their seeon-
1 Compare Westermarck, loc. tit., p. 165 et seq.
9 " Women are everywhere conscious of the value of their own
beauty ; and when they have the means, they take more delight in
decorating themselves with all sorts of ornaments than do men.
They borrow the plumes of male birds, with which nature has decked
this sex in order to charm the females." Darwin, "The Descent of
Man, "p. 597.
152 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
dary sexual characteristics, thus bringing out an exagger-
ated type of the feminine figure, e.g., the breasts, bosom,
waist and hips. Nature has already given a well-formed
woman a prominent bust, a graceful waist, and broad hips,
and it is beyond dispute that she is stamped by Providence
as being more distinctly sexual in her conformation, and
that she is obviously fashioned for the duties of maternity.
But fashion has ordained, chiefly out of deference to the
unrecognized desires of men, that all these prominent
sexual characters shall be enormously accentuated by cor-
sets, bustles, padded breasts, and by other devices which
display the exaggerated curves. 1
Thus the corset is employed to constrict the waist, the
effect of which is to emphasize the hips and breasts;
sleeves are sometimes enormous, sometimes scanty ; skirts
i " It would be interesting to trace the origin and development of
the modern waist in women. The Greeks of the finest period knew
nothing of it, but during the period of decadence women began to
compress the body with the apparent object of emphasizing the
sexual attraction of a conspicuously large pelvis. Hippocrates vigor-
ously denounced the women of Cos for constricting the waist with
a girdle. Among the Romans, who adopted this practice from the
depraved Greeks, Martial often alludes to the small waists of the
women of his time, and Galen speaks much in the same way as a
modern physician regarding the evils of tight lacing. Since then
matters have changed, but very slightly. The apparent development
of the pelvis has been further artificially exaggerated by that contri-
vance which in Elizabethan times was called a 'bum-roll' and more
recently a 'bustle.' The tightening of the waist does not merely
emphasize the pelvic sexual characters ; it also emphasizes the not-
less-important thoracic sexual characters; as Dr. Louis Robinson
expresses it (in a private letter) : 'I think it very likely one of the
reasons (and there must be strong ones) for the persistent habit of
tightening up the belly-girth among Christian damsels is that such
constriction renders the breathing thoracic, and so advertises the al-
luring bosom by keeping it in constant and manifest movement.
The heaving of a sub-clavicular sigh is likely to cause more sensa-
tion than the heaving of an epigastric or umbilical sigh.'" Have-
lock Ellis, "Man and Woman," p. 210.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 153
are sometimes too ample, sometimes too tight; and all
these various fashions have in view the self-same design of
impressing on the notice the sexual attraction of the wearer.
A gloriously formed woman will by nature have these
parts of her figure ample and prominent, but there is no
sensuality about Nature's handiwork, and to the anatomist
these distortions which are decreed by fashion appear as
the greatest possible violations of beauty and of propriety.
All these indelicate exposures and oddities of apparel
necessarily localize the attention of the beholder on the em-
phasized part, and the costuming of fashionable women
has to a pernicious degree become too expressive of their
sex, and too highly inflaming to men. 1
In the ballroom the attire of some of the women, at
least, is often sensuous to the extreme limit of propriety ;
and it is futile to deny that many men become sexually
excited by a close contact with beautiful women who dis-
play bare arms and even the dimples between the breasts,
and who at the same time attract by the well-known
erotic stimuli of perfumes, touch, and other attractive
equipments, which, if they do not plainly show, at least
suggest.
The logic of the changes of fashion is not difficult for
physiologists to understand, for the unceasing variations
of the caprices of dress follow the well-known physiological
law that the nervous system fails to react to a stimulus "in
proportion to the duration of the action of the stimulus"
(Chaddock). Thus we cease to be excited or attracted by
phenomena with which we are constantly associated, while
new stimuli compel attention.
For this reason the sensible and becoming style of to-
day gives place to the absurd, uncomfortable and hideous
fashion of to-morrow, the aim being to constantly attract
1 Court plaster is so called because it was originally used by ladies
at court to accentuate some special facial attraction. This is an ex-
ample of one of the slighter degrees of accentuation.
154 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
attention; and the reason is to be found in the desire to
sexually please the taste of men. Nor do these efforts fail
of their purpose when we consider that many men are some-
what enthusiastic over the distinctive charms of the femi-
nine figure, and that some men are inflammably so.
It can confidently be asserted that among the men in the
ballroom no inconsiderable number are sexually stimulated
by the sensuous attire of the women ; and the most highly
excited of all are, of course, the neurotic and lascivious
ones, who consequently, in many instances, appear to the
best advantage, and are especially popular with the ladies
on account of their showing the liveliest and fullest appre-
ciation of their charms.
Hidden beauties are known to be most powerful in ex-
citing the sexual fancy by provoking a sort of interested
disappointment ; and so a costume, perhaps not really im-
modest, may yet be so designed as to prove unduly fasci-
nating.
Young girls who have been modestly brought up have
been known to cry bitterly from a sense of natural woman-
liness the first time they have been made to appear in ball
dress; their pure instincts shrinking from showing the
great expanse of bare flesh, the dimple between the breasts,
and the nude bosom and arms for, upon their first appear-
ance, they fully realize that they are indecently clad for
the society of men.
"In remarkable contrast with it [feminine modesty]
there is occasional exposition of physical charms, conven-
tionally sanctioned by the law of fashion, in which even
the most discreet maiden allows herself to indulge in the
ballroom. The reasons which lead to this display are
evident [to be sexually attractive]. Fortunately, the mod-
est girl is as little conscious of them as of the reason for the
occasionally recurring mode of making certain portions of
the body more prominent; to say nothing of corsets, etc." '
i Krafft-Ebing, loc. eit., p. 15.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 155
In some of these ballrooms one may see upward of an
acre of bare shoulders and bosoms and arms, and it is im-
possible to doubt that many men are sexually inflamed in
such an atmosphere. In fact, these accentuations of cos-
tuming are, at bottom, designed for that very purpose,
though the uureflective portion of humanity do not realize
it, and the women err unconsciously. "Were a pious
Mussulman of Terghana to be present at our balls, and see
the bare shoulders of our wives and daughters, and the
semi-embraces of our round dances, he would silently
wonder at the longsuffering of Allah, who had not long
ago poured fire and brimstone on this sinful and shameless
generation. "
The beautiful attribute of feminine modesty is at the
best put to a severe strain in the ballroom, for the women
meet men, many of them impure, under circumstances
which cannot bear analysis. Women are largely to blame
for apathetically permitting such improperly seductive
attire to be worn, and for receiving and even welcoming
into their circles men who are known to be unfit for intro-
duction to young girls ; in no surer way could they con-
tribute to the humiliation of their own sex.
Of course dancing is fun ! Who. can resist the fascina-
tion of the enchanting music which compels the muscles
to move in graceful cadence? Of course it must be intoxi-
catingly pleasurable to feel that one is so beautiful and so
attractive to the men ; and of course it is a treat for men
to mix with women who should be at home in their bou-
doirs until more fittingly attired. But fun never excuses
sin, nor can it be offered as a palliation for practices and
customs which are scientifically known to be subversive of
sexual control.
The mind naturally enjoys the measured cadence and
the rhythmic steps of dancing to music, for harmony of
sound and motion is more intensely sweet than either
1 O. Peschel, "The Races of Man," Eng. Trans., London, 1876.
156 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
alone, and the enjoyment is naturally greater if two indi-
viduals of opposite sexes dance together, or if a number
harmoniously execute certain evolutions of figures. But
the trouble lies in the excess of enjoyment.
In the ballroom the girl feels secure because she knows
that she is safe from the too-open demonstrations of her
partner. Before others they can almost hug each other to
music, place their arms round each other, and revel in the
intoxicating fancies which are induced by the attractions
of sex, of apparel, perfume, music, etc. And, in addition,
there is often a vivaciousness of irresponsibility with all
this which is further courted at the punch-bowl ; and alcohol
is known to have a far more erotic effect on women than on
men. Such scenes could not be enacted in private and
without music.
"Who quarrels with dancing? But then, people must
dance at their own risk. If Lucy Lamb, by dancing with
young Boosey when he is tipsy, shows that she has no self-
respect, how can I, coolly talking with Mrs. Lamb in the
corner, and gravely looking on, respect the young lady?
Lucy tells me that if she dances with James she must
dance with John. I cannot deny it, for I am not suffi-
ciently familiar with the regulations of the mystery. Only
this : If dancing with sober James makes it necessary to
dance with tipsy John it seems to me, upon a hasty
glance at the subject, that a self-respecting Lucy would
refrain from the dance 'with James. Why Lucy must
dance with every man who asks her, whether he is in his
senses, or knows how to dance, or is agreeable to her or
not, is a profound mystery to Paul Potifar." *
If a list were made of the gentlemen's names at almost
any large ball, many of them would be erased by a careful
censor as unfit for association with decent women. This
is no mere matter of opinion, but an incontrovertible fact;
and those are blind indeed who cannot see that the modern
i George William Curtis.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 157
ball, with every feature in it sensuous and seductive, is what
we call a secondary sexual love-feast, aod that its . present
tendency is not in the direction of purity or a high civili-
zation. It must be remembered that many of the men,
and for that matter many of the women as well, are the
descendants of ancestors who were lustful and perverse in
their inclinations, and that such are congenitally vicious
and abnormal in their sexual proclivities. To these the
foregoing facts are especially applicable, and the grossest
evils are of course produced on their neuropathic disposi-
tions.
For all these reasons we must place dancing, as usually
practised, in the category of those influences which pro-
mote laxity of morals, and perhaps it will be seen that the
province of preaching upon this topic belongs more to the
physician than to the clergyman.
The Modern Stage is an important factor in debasing
public opinion and sexually overstimulating the passions
of a large number of individuals.
Nations at all periods of history have delighted in some
form of drama ; and there is no doubt that grand and en-
nobling plays, well presented, have an educational influence
of much value, and that they afford a legitimate gratifica-
tion of the normal play-instinct of mankind.
But we cannot fail to notice that a large majority of the
modern plays and operas have as essential elements of the
plot, or of the costuming, something which is unmistakably
immoral, salacious and erotic. In fact, there is a glorifi-
cation of vice, and modesty and morality are put to shame.
Lasciviousness and the waving of enchanting petticoats
have largely replaced oratory and fine acting.
"Now, what we get on the English stage is the gross-
ness without the vice or, to put it more accurately, the
vulgarity without the open presentation of vice. You may
mean anything, so long as you say something else. Al-
most every farcical comedy or comic opera to leave the
158 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
music hall alone is vitiated by a vein of vulgar indecency
which is simply despicable. The aim of the artist is not
to conceal art there is none to conceal but to conceal his
indecencies decently, and yet in the most readily discover-
able manner."
That the tendencies are pernicious cannot be disputed
when we see such prominence given to the ballet, skirt-
dances, living pictures, and to every other device sugges-
tive to the eye and imagination. Some of the shameless
"leg artistes" who have invaded the stage, though in no
sense actresses nor even artistic ballet-dancers* have gained
far more notoriety and wealth by their indecent exhibitions
than the legitimate performers have been able to do. The
stage-dance is sensual in every respect ; the costumes must
be spicy, and the draperies sometimes scanty, sometimes
voluminous are moved in the most suggestive ways under
the effects of colored searchlights, etc.
A woman who has no talent whatever as an actress can,
nevertheless, often cause a furore and draw large crowds
to see her if she will strip herself of clothing to the extreme
limits tolerated by law, and supply some sort of an apol-
ogy for such an appearance. The study of these so-called
actresses seems to be constantly to devise something bolder
and more indelicate than what any one else has brought
out ; and in this way they attract large crowds of men and
women, and receive enormous salaries from their managers.
Of course no real lady, if she were reflective, could think
of allowing herself to be seen in such an assemblage where
semi-nude women are openly degrading her sex, nor would
a true gentleman attend places where he could not take the
ladies of his family.
" Ladies, who, whether they are married or unmarried,
are in England presumed to be agnostics in sexual matters,
will roar themselves hoarse over farces whose stories could
only be told to the ultra-marines. Ibsen may not untie a
1 Zangwill, "Without Prejudice," p. 176.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 159
shoe-latchet in the interest of truth, while English bur-
lesque managers may put an army of girls into tights." '
To such an extent do many actresses minister to the
gratification of the sensual desires of the public, by the
subtle art of suggestion, or by artistic lasciviousness, that
the police have to keep a constant watch over the theatres
in order to prevent the most flagrant indecencies.
At the World's Fair in Chicago all kinds of new sensual
dances were introduced into the country from all parts of the
world, the most familiar to the public being the " Danse du
Ventre," and the "Kutchi-Kutchi." Those who saw these
performances could not fail to realize that they were be-
holding almost naked prostitutes, who were using every
effort in their power to sexually excite the audience ; and,
to a lesser degree, the same can almost be said of the ballet-
girls, who manage their limbs and their scanty drapery
in ways which, to say the least, are impossible for pure
womanhood. These girls who perform in the ballet, or
who otherwise appear in immodest parts, can be put down,
not invariably, but almost without exception, as loose
women. Subjected to familiarity, coarse jests, and sensual
admiration, and being as a matter of course both vain and
poor, they fall easy victims to the debased profligates and
fast young men who are so easily admitted to their ac-
quaintance.
Both in Europe and America these so-called actresses
the chorus-girls and dancers are classified en masse as
loose women, and they are known by the medical profes-
sion to be more uniformly infected with venereal disease
than are any other class of women. Nor can this be won-
dered at : Going from town to town, drinking and carous-
ing with impure men in rapid succession, elated by their
association with so-called gentlemen who are above their
station in life, they usually submit to the sexual embrace
under the disadvantageous necessity of secrecy and with-
Zangwill, loc. eit. t p. 178.
160 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
out any attempt at hygienic precautions, and as a natural
result they almost uniformly acquire venereal disease.
The modern stage is known to be the hotbed of impurity
and divorce, and the actress of note who is not a divorcee
or who has a clean reputation is the exception.
Mary Anderson says in her book that it was " the hap-
piest day in my life when I quit the stage forever" ; and
Madame Janauschek says : " The best thing for a young
girl to do, no matter how great she expects to become, is
to keep away from the theatre, and do anything but go
upon the stage. This is what I tell them all."
Olive Logan, 1 herself an actress of note, whose father,
mother, and five sisters were members of the theatrical
profession, felt obliged to abandon the stage, and wrote :
" I can advise no honorable, self-respecting woman to turn
to the stage for support, with its demoralizing influences,
which seem to be growing stronger and stronger day by
day ; where the greatest rewards are won by a set of brazen-
faced, clog-dancing creatures, with dyed yellow hair and
padded limbs, who have come here in droves from across
the ocean." Little improvement certainly has come about
since her day.
It is a deplorable thing for the nation that so many of
its pure women will consent to patronize these improper
amusements, where they appear to revel in an improper
curiosity for beholding vice in romantic and interesting
guises, and where they calmly behold before the glare of
the footlights the open putting to shame of feminine mod-
esty and everything characteristic of true womanhood.
Secure in the feeling that there is a respectable audience
around them, they display no embarrassment at things
which they would not tolerate in their own homes, or any-
where else than at the theatre.
The strongest force which should operate against the
terrible licentiousness of the times will continue to remain
> "Women and Theatres," p. 138 ; 1869.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 161
inert so long as pure women countenance and support these
amusements; for unquestionably the erotic stimuli which
emanate from the modern stage cause the gravest injury
to the mental health cf the community, and poison the
sources from which the stability and morality of future
generations must spring.
THE NUDE AND THE VULGAR IN ART.
The loveliness of the representations of perfect types of
men and women is too grand a theme to be prudish about ;
and without question it is an advantage to a community if
they can have erected in their midst a perfect type of figure
whose beauty, whose strength, whose grace and dignity
they can emulate.
No noble bronze or marble statue can have any improper
suggestion in it for the pure, nor, if it come from the
workshop of an artist who is free from vulgarity, can it
afford any stimulus to the prurient. The best examples of
the statues of the ancient Greeks are certainly in no way
offensive to modesty, and clothing would seem altogether
out of place upon them ; but when modern sensual realism
attempts the same task the impression is usually conveyed
that the statues are naked, and that they are designed by
their suggestive postures to awaken sensual feelings.
True Art, when it has taken lofty and pure subjects for
illustration, has indeed done much for civilization; so
that we must grant to the painter and the sculptor, if their
works show forth the purity of their hearts and minds, a
position in the forefront of the world's benefactors.
True Art is in harmony with Nature, and must be true
as far as it goes, lor, as Fairholt says, " Truth is the high-
est quality in Art."
Nature and true Art cannot be at variance, for Art is
merely a method of recording on canvas, or bronze, or stone
the glories and the truths of Nature, so that even the quar-
162 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ries can be made by the hands of men to ennoble the ideals
of humanity and to point our desires upward.
Would that in each community there could stand statues
of a glorious type of unblemished manhood and of a glori-
ous type of maternal womanhood, all models of their sex,
with all the expression of nobleness in their countenances,
and showing forth in every lineament the majesty of a
spotless purity, and the ideal standards of fitness for the
hallowed duties of parentage !
True Art is by far too noble to seek to amuse ; but, on the
other hand, much of the material that is labeled " art" is in-
tensely vulgar, because it presents Nature in the aspect of
a buffoon. None deplore this vulgarity so keenly as the
true artists who are actuated by noble inspirations.
Society, however, is showing a taste and even a craving
for the nude and the suggestive in art which has over-
stepped the bounds of decency.
Modern ingenuity has made it possible to reproduce by
engravings and chromo-lithographs thousands of pictures
at a minimum cost ; and as a result lewd illustrations are
distributed everywhere, in the papers and magazines, in
cigarette boxes, on the fences as theatrical posters, and, in
fact, wherever they are likely to catch the public attention.
The employment of female models who are required to
pose in the nude is a custom of the artist which is un-
doubtedly productive of much harm. If a physician were
to needlessly expose a patient he would be severely con-
demned as unprofessional; but surely Art cannot be on
such a lofty pedestal as to require the sacrifice of the mod-
esty and self-respect of young girls who are reduced by
necessity to offer up that part, at least, of their virtue. If
this practice is a necessity for the good of civilization,
then it is proper to call it by its proper designation hu-
man vivisection. No right-minded parent would allow a
daughter to pose in scanty attire before any man, however
pure for it is well known that it is exceptional for these
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 163
models to retain their virginity. It is certain that this
degrading class of work is responsible for the downfall of
no inconsiderable number of young women, and that civili-
zation is in no way advanced by suggestive pictures, how-
ever artistic.
IMPURE LITERATURE.
The daily press is a power in the community for both
good and evil which, on the whole, has no competitor.
While its rightful function is to give legitimate news and to
instruct and educate, it is, on the other hand, too often the
vehicle of untruth, slander, impurity, sensationalism, in-
decency and licentiousness, at one and the same time cater-
ing to and begetting a vitiated class out of individuals pre-
disposed to a loose manner of thought and action. One is
almost led to believe that, even in this republic, a certain
censorship will have to be exercised over the press in order
to check the moral and esthetic devastation which so many
of the papers are producing.
Too often they spread to a deplorable extent the inmost
details of private scandal, of family misfortune, of crime,
filth, and wickedness of all sorts. If any unfortunate one
has made a misstep, or attempted suicide, or been the
victim of some unusually calamitous circumstance, the pub-
lished details, while injuring a certain class of readers and
doing good to none, often make it impossible for that in-
dividual to recover his standing, or to remain in his ac-
customed locality.
By its advertisements, the press pretty generally gives
to the public such information as will seemingly help them
to escape the consequences of licentiousness, by referring
them to charlatans, abortionists, and "baby-farmers."
President Cleveland, in February, 1897, delivered a most
scathing criticism upon the tendencies of modern news-
papers to disseminate corruption when he denied a pardon
to the editor of one of the Chicago dailies. This editor
164 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
was "sentenced in December, 1895, in Indiana, to two
years' imprisonment and $250 fine and costs for mailing
obscene literature." The President said:
" Denied. This convict was one of the editors and pro-
prietors, and a distributor through the mails and otherwise,
of a disgustingly vile and obscene newspaper. His con-
viction and sentence was an event distinctly tending to the
promotion of public morals and the protection of the sons
and daughters of our land from filth and corruption at a
time when indecent newspaper publications are so dan-
gerous and common. Everybody in favor of cleanliness
should encourage the punishment of such offences and de-
sire that it should be more frequently imposed. While
I am much surprised by the number of respectable people
who have joined in urging clemency in this case, my duty
seems so clear that I am not in the least tempted to inter-
fere with the just and wholesome sentence of the court." :
There are in every community individuals who have
stigmata of degeneration, either acquired or inherited.
Such persons have latent instincts, which are acted on un-
favorably by this sensational and impure literature, by the
ethics which are often applauded in novels, and by the
pornographic illustrations which represent the sole output
of some publishing houses.
" Alas ! that the greed for gain should turn the mighty
press of this land into engines of corruption. The degrad-
ing of our youth is a crying evil to-day. It is a seed-sowing
from which brothels, dives, prisons, penitentiaries, asy-
lums, and early graves are fast being recruited.
" The report of the New York Society for the Suppres-
sion of Vice, which is about completed for 1895, while it
shows gratifying results, shows also cause for alarm.
" The matters destroyed are one thing. But the matters
which are to-day at large (worse than ravenous beasts or
poisonous serpents), prowling about the country and trail-
1 Washington Post, February 25, 1897.
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 165
ing their slimy and venomous form among the youth in our
institutions of learning, is an entirely different thing.
" That report contains the arrest of 2,044 persons, and the
seizure of 63,139 pounds of books, 27,424 pounds of stere-
otype plates for printing books, 836,096 obscene pictures,
and 5,895 negatives for making the same. Also 96,680
articles for immoral use, 1,577,441 circulars, catalogues,
songs, and leaflets, 32,883 newspapers, 1,102,620 names
and post-office addresses seized in hands of dealers to which
circulars were being sent." 1
Even the most respectable men and women, knowing not
what they do, both read and applaud the book which is
strongly suggestive of the " Quartier Latin" of Paris, and
other books which hintingly portray the sensual side of
humanity. Through a dense ignorance of the sexual side
of human nature, they fail to observe abuses of decency
which are at once apparent to the medical profession.
The world's hardest problem has been the subjugation
of this social evil of impurity ; partly because society is
distinguished for its ignorance regarding the sexual life,
having as a rule only one idea, and that a wrong one ; and
partly because every advance which civilization makes is
met by the hostile ridicule of the uninformed, by scurrilous
literature, by indecent advertisements, by sensually sug-
gestive plays, by the indecencies of fashion and the ball-
room, and by many other causes which operate to maintain
in a consant state of stimulation the cerebral centres which
preside over the generative functions.
The following quotation succinctly sums up a vast
amount of profound wisdom, each clause of which at once
suggests the active measures which must be taken for the
preservation of the nation :
1 "Demoralizing Literature," by Anthony Comstock. Abstract
of a paper read at the New York American Purity Alliance Con-
ference,
166 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
" See the wiles and activity and open warfare of impu-
rity. The popular literature of the day is largely subser-
vient to it. Novels exhaling its stench burden news-stands
and book agents' baskets. Evil papers obtain readers by
the hundreds of thousands, and drive out of the market
self-respecting and decent publications. Painting and
sculpture, whose mission it should be to elevate and ennoble
the mind by the representations of humanity's best deeds,
reveal the human form in hideous suggestiveness. The-
atrical posters are to our young people unmistakable ob-
ject-lessons in lasciviousness, and the stage, which might
be one of the most useful interpreters of wisdom and virtue,
not infrequently becomes the panderer to lowest passions.
Cultured society serves the interests of vice by its immodest
fashions in dances and in female dress. Public opinion is
debased ; virtue, it is thought, is sufficiently avenged when
a fallen woman is declared an outcast ; but the man who
compassed her ruin goes scot-free, and is the welcome
visitor to club and drawing-room. Laws against open im-
morality are dead letters. Tempters to sin promenade un-
molested our streets ; homes of iniquity flaunt their wick-
edness before the public gaze; orgies born of demons
occur in public halls with the avowed connivance of the
police. Sin sets itself up as a profession under shadowy
names through which the purpose is easily read, and ad-
vertises itself through the columns of our newspapers.
Base men and women go around entrapping unwary girl-
hood into lives of shame; procurers and procuresses are
constantly prowling, as so many jackals, in search of hu-
man bodies to cast them in prey to cruel lust.
"Laws protect sin. The child of ten or fourteen years
in many places is presumed to be of sufficient age to barter
away her innocence, and her seducer cannot be convicted
of crime. There are States in the country where the viola-
tion of a woman is no violation of law, if her color is not
Caucasian white. The impudence of vice attempts to go
INFLUENCES WHICH INCITE TO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. 167
further, and demands that infamy be licensed by law, that
women be stamped with the badge of professional vice, and
that the partners in their iniquity be protected by the law
of the land and be secured by legal inquests from the dis-
eases to which criminal indulgence might otherwise expose
them." 1
The mere fact that fashionable society sanctions a custom
does not, as a rule, recommend it; for society is jealous of
restrictions which interfere with its pleasure, and becomes
bored by any appeal to be very good.
Even the heathen, who are quick to see the evidences of
sensuality, would be shocked at many of our fashions and
customs.
Dr. Butler, in "The Land of the Yeda," says in refer-
ence to the Nautch girls :
"No man in India would allow his wife or daughter to
dance ; and as to dancing with another man, he would for-
sake her forever as a woman lost to virtue and modesty
if she were to attempt it. In their observation of white
women there is nothing that so much perplexes them as the
fact that fathers and husbands will permit their wives and
daughters to indulge in promiscuous dancing. No argu-
ment will convince them that the act is such as a virtuous
female should practise, or that its tendency is not licen-
tious. The prevalence of the practice in ' Christian ' na-
tions makes our holy religion which they suppose must
allow it to be abhorred by many of them, and often it is
cast in the teeth of our missionaries when preaching to
them. But what would these heathens say could they enter
our opera-housea and theatres, and see the shocking ex-
posure of their persons which our public women there
present before mixed assemblies ! Ye* they would be ten
times more astonished .that ladies of virtue and reputation
should be found there, accompanied by their daughters, to
1 Archbishop Ireland's address, delivered at the World's Congress
on Socal Purity.
168 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
witness the sight, and that, too, in the presence of the other
sex! But then, they are only heathens, and don't appre-
ciate the high accomplishments of Christian civilization!
Still Heaven grant that the future Church of India may
ever retain at least this item of the prejudices of their
forefathers !"
A thoughtful person cannot help observing that these
times are characterized by the reckless abuse of stimulants,
material and mental, to which we are fast becoming slav-
ishly addicted. Besides alcoholic stimulants, we are pre-
sented at every turn with literary, dramatic, political,
artistic and other excitants which the general public seems
to demand for its mental, moral and physical nourish-
ment. The battle against impurity cannot prevail unless
at least the decent members of the community shall have
high standards which discountenance sensuality, and un-
less they demand equal legal rights for both sexes, and
cease to heap up all the degradation on the weaker sex.
Yirtue in a nation will decline unless its citizens exhibit a
zeal for what is pure and good ; and no nation can be truly
great which does* not represent in the aggregate those qual-
ities which are great in the individual.
America, being related to every nation, has derived
something good and something evil from all of them ; and
unless we court a national tragedy, such as those which
have blotted out whole empires in the past, we must be
awake and active, and demand a due reverence for the
family life, while at the same time vigorously opposing
every influence which in any way tends to degrade it.
Otherwise we cannot be ascendant and predominant in his-
tory. National decay will surely follow if we submit to
the seductive influences of the times ; and unless we effec-
tively combat the enemies of purity and decency, there is
danger that those at least who are city bred will become
morally rotten.
CHAPTEK YI.
PBOSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES THAT LEAD A WOMAN
INTO SUCH A LIFE.
Preliminary Considerations. The harlot's class of work
is quite anomalous ; in every profession or calling in life
the laborer becomes more and more proficient as he or she
gains familiarity with the work, and enjoys an increase of
pay corresponding to the length of service. But with the
harlot the highest remuneration, which is often lavish,
comes first, and the less she knows about her business the
better. In fact, hardly any woman of even the most bril-
liant attainments can earn as much by a reputable class of
work as an attractive and fresh young girl can at first com-
mand by the sale of her person,
To an ignorant young girl in straitened circumstances
and of immoral proclivities this opportunity comes as a
great temptation, for she does not begin to conceive of the
ruin that will speedily convert her into a cast-off hag.
As heretofore pointed out, if the harlot be a necessity,
then she should be granted every honor which we could
bestow upon her for her self-sacrifice. But the conditions
are quite the reverse. She, the oppressed and deceived
one, is harshly treated, while he, the persuader and the
liar, is condoned; she, who earns her living by prosti-
tution, compelled perhaps by stern necessity, is an out-
cast, while he, who perhaps spends enough on venery to
support a family, is not only tolerated, but welcomed by
society.
Thus the man who blasts the life of an innocent woman
by lying devices and the pretense of love gets not a tithe
170 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
of the punishment of the ruined one. To her the injury is
irreparable; to him the injury is chiefly a private one of
dishonor.
"The whole force of the world's opinion has been
directed, not to the censure of actually guilty parties who
induced the crime, but to the poor wronged sufferer. She,
who is too frequently the victim of falsehood and deceit, or
the slave of an absolute necessity, must expiate her fault
by submitting to a constant succession of indignities and
annoyances. He, whose conduct has made her what she
is, escapes all censure. But some moralist will ask, 'How
would you have us treat such women?' Treat them, sir,
as human beings, actuated by the same passions as your-
self; as susceptible beings, keenly sensitive of reproach;
as injured beings, who have a claim upon your kindness ;
as outraged beings, who have a demand upon your justice.
Lead them into a path by which they can escape from dan-
ger; protect the innocent from the snares which environ
them on every side. And when this is done, pour the vials
of your hottest wrath on those of your own sex whose
machinations have blighted some of God's fairest created
beings." 1
The consequences of prostitution fall almost solely on
the woman. The man, though he suffers in his purse or
by disease, finds no impediment to securing employment,
no social bar, no objection to his marrying and securing a
respectable home, no obstacle to his occupying a pew in
church, or to his holding any position which the chaste
man may. He may go on his way betraying and ruining
girls, spreading disease, begetting illegitimate offspring,
and working into the hands of the abortionist, and yet go
seemingly unpunished; but certainly, as the offender, he
is inexpressibly more blameworthy than the offended one.
To make a girl a prostitute is easy horribly easy!
The steps are very short when one considers them. At
i Sanger, " History of Prostitution, " p. 642.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 171
first her parents, secure in the belief that their daughter
cannot do wrong, carelessly allow her to roam the streets
by day or night with young men whom perhaps they
hardly know by sight. Then come amusements without
chaperonage the carriage drive, the dance-hall, the the-
atre. After the theatre the young man perhaps invites her
to a little supper, and, if she is foolish, she drinks a little
wine with him. Now the ramparts of her moral and psy-
chical nature are tottering, and she both allows and courts
a little familiarity. The next time, perhaps under the in-
fluence of more alcohol, and flattered with protestations of
love, she submits herself and yields her virginity. Preg-
nancy probably follows ; she goes away on a trip with him
under some lying pretext; he deserts her; she perhaps
cannot go home, and so in desperation she gets into a cab
and is driven to a brothel. Such a history is by no means
uncommon among the lower and middle classes of society.
When it is necessary for a girl to earn her own living,
perhaps in a strange city and without any protection, it
can readily be seen that she is in imminent peril if she al-
low the least familiarity, or if she can be persuaded to
drink.
A girl of the wealthier classes, no matter how degraded
she may become, almost never sinks to a life of prostitu-
tion, for few women follow that calling from any other
motive than necessity.
Woman is by nature monogamous, and it is well known
that almost every prostitute has her " lover" one among
her many customers to whom alone she is loyal, whom she
sometimes supports, and from whom she often consents to
receive the most cruel treatment. This is explained by
the natural adaptation of women to sexual bondage, and by
the fact that the supreme wish of a woman, however de-
graded, is forever and always marriage with one man
whom she loves. The instincts of women are naturally in
the direction of purity and the home, and before they can
172 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
be led to become prostitutes these natural qualities must
either be perverted, or put to the greatest stress by temp-
tation or necessity, or otherwise grievously wounded.
Deep dishonor is due to men who argue in favor of pros-
titution, for the methods employed to recruit brothels are
those of the crafty hunter and the merciless coward. It
is the innocent, unsuspecting, unprotected and friendless
young girl who is ambushed and entrapped by those of
both sexes who frequent these places. Little by little, and
by one device and another, suitable to each victim, the
poor girl is drawn into the hunter's net and ruthlessly de-
graded. And furthermore, those who haunt these resorts
and who have grown old in their experience inveigle their
innocent young men acquaintances into this kind of life,
telling them nothing of the disease, crime, suffering and
lying which such a life entails, and informing them not
of the menace to their whole future health and character.
The first step in this direction has turned many a youth
toward a career of crime and disgrace. Impurity is the
" ill wind" that blows no one any good. For some callous
and seared natures there may be a certain fool's pleasure
in it, but no happiness. Pleasure takes no thought of the
consequences; even the murderer awaiting execution can
take pleasure in the meal of his choice, but happy he can-
not be, for happiness demands an assurance of future joy
and security.
Impurity cannot add to one's happiness when he reflects
upon the sure consequences of disease, illegitimacy, child-
murder, and ultimate annihilation that must be the lot of
himself and his partner unless they repent, make amends,
and alter their ways. " When Pleasure treads the Paths
which Keason shuns," then Death treads in its footsteps
and leads inevitably to the destruction of every quality
which is dear to mankind ; and surely the destroyer is more
guilty than the destroyed.
We are forced to the conclusion that the harlot is less
PROSTITUTION AND THE} INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 173
guilty than the seducer; and as we study the causes of
her downfall let us ever remember, to the unutterable
shame of our sex, that woman's extremity is man's oppor-
tunity.
The Influences which Direct a Woman into a Life of Pros-
titution are as numerous as human weaknesses and misun-
derstandings can make them emanating partly from men,
partly from herself.
One would think that a woman would foresee the inevi-
table ruin that awaits her, and that she would not put her-
self in the way of temptation. Rarely indeed does a woman
deliberately enter upon this life from choice, but she is
forced into it, or led into it, either by some indiscretion on
her part, or infamy on the part of another.
Love, flattery, vanity, irreligion, indolence, intemper-
ance, necessity, seduction, postponement of marriage, pe-
culiar stress of temptation, and many other impulses lead
her into it. The sweets come first, while the bitterness
is lost sight of.
In the study of the factors which lead to prostitution we
must recognize that a certain proportion of women are
" strumpets at heart," as men so often say though without
understanding why they say it.
Lombroso, in "The Female Offender," has shown that
there is " an intimate correlation between bodily and mental
conditions and processes," and criminologists recognize
certain stigmata, or anatomical defects and peculiarities in
habitual malefactors, which are much more common among
them than among the normal individuals of society.
Among criminals, especially habitual criminals, we find
physical anomalies of various parts of the anatomy, such
as abnormal crania, misshapen ears, eyes on a different
level, or eyes too near together or too wide apart, crooked
noses, hare-lips, cleft palates, highly arched palates, mal-
formations of the teeth or tongue, supernumerary digits,
abnormal limbs and bodies, etc. In fact, there is found to
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
be a distinct correlation between the physical defects and
the mental processes. This is a law in criminology.
Lombroso classifies courtezans along with criminals, and
shows by strong evidence that a natural courtezan is more
clearly marked by stigmata as an offender than any other
class of criminals. " Almost all anomalies occur more fre-
quently in prostitutes than in female offenders, and both
classes have a larger number of the characteristics of de-
generation than normal women."
From measurements of a large number of harlots, Lom-
broso shows that they are remarkable for their small
cranial capacities. Heredity and atavism have inclined
many to this sort of life, and thus many harlots have
" fallen victims to their grandfathers' excesses" ; or, as
South says, they have been " not so much born, as damned,
into the world" through the sins of their parents.
Hysteria is exceedingly common among harlots; and it
is well known that hysterical women are often intensely
erotic, not always so much on account of strong lustful
desire as on account of a passion for new emotions and an
intense longing for stimuli out of a spirit of adventure.
" Legrand du Saulle observed that 12 per cent, of hysterical
women took to prostitution out of sheer dilettantism with-
out any pressure from misery, and Madame Tarnowsky
found that fifteen per cent, of prostitutes were hysterical." 9
The Lustful Passion in Women. In the vast majority of
cases the desire which is felt by women for sexual gratifi-
cation, regarded merely as a lustful longing, is not nearly
so strong as in men, but to this rule there are exceptions
which we must briefly consider. In both sexes we occa-
sionally meet with a pathological increase of this passion
which irresistibly impels them to seek sexual satisfaction
without any moral deterring influence being exercised. In
man, this condition is called Satyriasis ; in woman, Nym-
1 Lombroso, "The Female Offender," p. 85.
* Lombroso, loc. tit., p. 243.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 175
phomania. Both of these conditions stand on the border-
land of insanity and often lead to maniacal outbursts. Of
course, there are varying degrees of intensity of satyriasis
and nymphomania, dependent sometimes upon local causes,
sometimes upon constitutional disease, or following upon
unnatural stimulation of the sexual sphere by masturba-
tion or other gross perversions. Such cases are not infre-
quent in every insane asylum.
A woman with nymphomania is more excessive in her
demands than a man who is the subject of satyriasis, partly
because he can find some relief by the discharge of semen,
while she, having no corresponding alleviation, is driven to
any or all means to satisfy her intolerable cravings. Such
women will accept the embraces of any man whatsoever, or
practise almost continual masturbation, or even resort to
bestiality ; and so intense is the lustful feeling that it some-
times clouds all conscience, or even consciousness. The
poor victims of this malady are acutely insane on the sub-
ject, if not upon others as well. The disease being proba-
bly due to a cerebral lesion, little good can be done by
removal of the clitoris and ovaries.
Nymphomania will account for the occasional pitiable
lapses of virtue on the part of women who have been
shielded in every way and who possess all the inherent
characteristics of ladyhood. Cases are numerous where
these disorganized sufferers have wrongfully sworn by the
most solemn oaths that they have been violated by some
most estimable man, such as their doctor or minister, or
some other highly reputable person.
Extreme degrees of nymphomania are more frequent
than extreme degrees of satyriasis, but sexual neurasthenia
with an unnatural degree of lust, short of satyriasis, is
probably more common in the male. Men who suffer
from sexual neurasthenia as a result of giving free rein to
their passions eventually reach a condition in which their
thoughts are solely directed to sexual matters, and, after
176 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
natural methods cease to gratify, they not infrequently re-
sort to the grossest perversions of sodomy, bestiality, etc.
The victim of satyriasis is an exceedingly dangerous mem-
ber of the community ; and such men have often been driven
to rape and lust-murder, to acts of hair-cutting on women,
to exhibition of the private parts in public, and to any or
all of the gross perversions.
Nymphomania leads the sufferer to submit to any deg-
radation, to solicit men and boys, to use indecent language,
and to shamelessly expose herself ; it transforms the woman
into an irresponsible person who seeks not to hide, but
rather to make a spectacle of her sexual fury.
It has seemed necessary to speak of this pitiable patho-
logical condition so that there shall be no misunderstand-
ing from a partial explanation of women's lustful passions.
Normally, a virtuous woman has very much less sensual de-
sire than a man, though stronger in her sexual feelings, as
shown by her greater love for children and the home. If
women were as passionate as men there could be no pos-
sibility of such a condition of society as we now enjoy
brothels and widespread illegitimacy would supplant mar-
riages and the family circle.
Sexual affairs occupy much of a woman's attention from
puberty to the menopause, for once every lunar month she
is "unwell" for a few days; and if she become a mother,
she has a prolonged gestation, the suckling, the nursing,
and the rearing of the child.
Men perform their sexual function at one time as well as
at another, and the act is soon accomplished and ends
without further result to them. But women are deterred
from intercourse while menstruating and during the later
months of pregnancy ; and what seems a simple act, occu-
pying but a few moments, may, and probably will, alter
their whole course of life. Thus the act of fornication is
trivial in its direct results upon the man, all the after-con-
sequences being worked out upon the woman.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 177
Men who frequent brothels often find that the inmates
seem to have passions which are equal in intensity to their
own; but it must be remembered that it is a part of the
business of prostitutes to practise this deception for few
men would derive the slightest satisfaction from a frigid
woman. In reality these harlots rarely enjoy the act,
though they simulate all the intensity of an orgasm, or
pleasurable venereal sensation, in order to please their
customers and influence them to return.
Almost any deception or pretext satisfies the man whose
mind is filled with lustful imaginations and desires; and
these misleading devices are employed with marked and
general success by women who have made their embraces
matters of merchandise.
Since brothels are the very manufactories of lies, the
harlot's word upon this subject cannot be received, for
her very success in trade is dependent upon seemingly
insatiable passions. But it is well known that after a
woman enters upon a life of prostitution she soon passes
from a stage of hypersesthesia to anaesthesia, i.e., from a
high degree of erotic feeling to one of almost complete
coldness, and that she soon becomes frigid to most men.
The sexual embrace in women requires for its full enjoy-
ment a physiological condition of love, which is necessarily
wanting in the harlot.
It is quite certain, then, that women do not naturally
possess anything like the degree of sensual passion which
is common among men, and that the psychical elements of
love and confidence play a much more intense part in their
enjoyment of the act than do the physical sensations.
Granting that there are exceptions, we may, however,
almost eliminate the lustful desire as being in any way an
important impulse in leading women into the harlot's man-
ner of life.
Vanity is an agency which indirectly leads to the ruin of
a, large number of voung women,
12
178 HEREDITY AND MORALS. ,
A very considerable number of born and bred ladies un-
questionably lapse from virtue, but they rarely sink to a
life of prostitution in which they expect the payment of
money for their favors.
The vast army of prostitutes is, on the other hand, al-
most entirely recruited from women of the lower walks of
life, such as domestics, shopgirls, factory -girls, emigrants,
chorus-girls, ballet-dancers, and other similar classes.
Conceit of their personal charms or adornments, a mor-
bid craving for flattery, desire for indiscriminate admira-
tion, or for presents or applause, and an overweening long-
ing for the society and companionship of " fine gentlemen,"
lead them at first to walk on the brink of the precipice,
over which they soon fall.
A girl who has some comeliness of face or figure, and
who dresses attractively, may keep company with men who
are socially far her superiors, and sometimes is blinded by
the opportunities to enjoy wine suppers and the " friend-
ship" of men whom she could not approach without con-
senting to do things bordering on the verge of a downfall.
First comes the flirtation, then the secret meetings, the
caresses and fondling, the protestations of regard or even
love, and then the deadfall trap, which is so set in the
dreadful ditch as to fall upon and crush her.
When a girl of fair intelligence who has to work for a
living looks about and thinks, she must observe that no
industrial career offers immediate returns which will in
any way compare with the amount of money she can make
by adopting the life of a courtezan. She must observe that
the same men who treat her insolently and heartlessly as
employers of her labor will shower favors upon her if she
will give up her person to them. By selling the first bloom
of her youth and beauty she can, without the slightest ex-
ertion, indulge herself in every vain wish of her heart,
such as expensive clothing, jewels, rich living, and asso-
ciation with "gentlemen." If she remain virtuous she
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 179
sees no reward, but, on the other hand, a life of toil and
plain dressing, rebuffs and contumely from her taskmas-
ters, and no possibility of coming into friendly contact with
the upper classes. " Education raises many poor women
to a stage of refinement that makes them suitable compan-
ions for men of a higher rank, and not suitable for those of
their own."
In her simplicity she does not see the penalties of dis-
ease, pregnancy, social annihilation, degradation and
death, which vice exacts. She does not see why she
should be working in drudgery at two or three dollars a
week, when she can readily earn as many hundreds of
dollars with no work, and enjoy an "elegant infamy."
The business of prostitution, then, is followed by better
success the less the prostitute knows about it, and the rich
rewards come first, when she is young and pretty, and not
faded by disease and debauchery. Such dangers stand in
the way of all ignorant and vain young women who put
themselves in the line of temptation at theatres, dance-
halls, picnics, and other questionable places without a
chaperon.
If a girl in this country becomes a mistress, she must
consent to be secluded, and cannot have her vanity com-
pletely satisfied for men here do not dare to honor their
paramours by appearing with them in full view of the
public, as they so often do in Continental Europe.
Many girls have in them a good deal of that principle or
endowment of Nature which Ellice Hopkins calls the
"black kitten" a sort of daredevil spirit which makes
them indiscreet enough to try their hands at " sowing wild
oats," and which lures them to play and frolic on danger-
ous ground, though they do not mean to go beyond cer-
tain limits.
Ellice Hopkins well says : 3 "Do not you think it a little
1 Lecky, "History of European Morals," p. 145.
8 "The Bide of Death."
180 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
hard that men should have dug by the side of her foolish,
dancing feet a bottomless pit, and that she cannot have
her jump and fun in safety, and put on her fine feathers
like the silly, bird-witted thing she is, without a single
false step dashing her over the brink, and leaving her with
the very womanhood dashed out of her?"
And yet vanity alone does not make them fall, for every
girl values her chastity to such an enormous degree that
no man could violate it without some subterfuge of love-
making, deceit, bribery, or by the aid of intoxicants.
Seduction. Except in the company of the most debased
profligates, from whom all sense of chivalry has long since
departed, no man would for a moment dare to say that he
had been the first to deprive a woman of her virtue ; but
such is the low degree of honor to which licentiousness has
reduced many men, that they consider a girl who has once
fallen, no matter how young and innocent, their legitimate
prey, and eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity to
be number two in helping her down to perdition. Once a
girl has made a single misstep, every lustful man is against
her to prevent her from rising, and keeps trampling her
down and pitilessly leading her on until she can sink no
lower.
In her descent she passes through the hands of many
men, who, in the eyes of the world, appear to become baser
and baser as the woman sinks lower and lower in her de-
grading calling. But in reality, by far the wickedest man
is he who inflicted the first terrible injury, and next in
order to him come those who complete his work of seduc-
tion by trampling out of her every vestige of womanhood.
What sensual man ever goes by preference to confirmed
prostitutes when he has the choice of selecting the freshest
and sweetest young girl who has just fallen? And yet
those who think themselves men allow such fellows to re-
count their detestable success with these attractive young
girls without even feeling a desire to kick them out of
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 181
their society. What conceivable excuse can be offered for
the cowardly malefactors who complete the work of seduc-
tion initiated by the first fiend !
No one who is normally endowed with a sense of chivalric
manliness, or who has any remnant of the true majesty of
his sex, will for a moment admit to his friendship, or even
companionship, the man who was the seducer, nor those
who completed the irrevocable ruin, of a maiden who might
have escaped the despair of an existence which must now,
on their account, be terminated by the blistering anguish
of social ostracism, shattered health, and a loathsome deg-
radation, which, if it does not drive the pitiable victim to a
suicide's grave, has yet removed her from every sweet in-
fluence which they themselves are permitted to enjoy with-
out even any vigorous condemnation from the girl's own sex.
Mr. Lecky, the historian of European morals, says on
this subject :
" When we reflect that the object of such a man is by the
coldest and most deliberate treachery to blast the life .of
an innocent woman; when we compare the levity of his
motive with the irreparable injury he inflicts; and when
we remember that he can only deceive his victim by per-
suading her to love him, and can only ruin her by persuad-
ing her to trust him, it must be owned that it would be
difficult to conceive a cruelty more wanton and more heart-
less, or a character combining more numerous elements of
infamy and dishonor." *
False protestations of affection lead many girls to allow
themselves to be seduced ; for when once a man has per-
suaded a woman that she has his real love, he has over-
thrown many obstacles to her reserve. If the girl can be
led to venture upon improper escapades with him, and
especially if she can be persuaded to drink, she is almost
at his mercy for alcohol paralyzes a woman's power of ne-
gation, and renders her more vivacious and amorous, her
1 Loc. tit., vol. ii., p. 347.
182 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
impulsive temperament being far more susceptible to its
influence than a man's. Indulgence in strong drink is the
precursor of a downfall from virtue for her, and harlotry
and drunkennecs go hand in hand. i
Most prostitutes claim that they began their life of shame
after being seduced, and in the large majority of cases they
speak the truth. Some men certainly began their infamous
careers for them, perjured themselves that they might have
their trivial sport, lacerated their delicate sensibilities, and
polluted their consciences, so that the poor women have
only the mere recollection of feelings of self-respect. Con-
sequently they now feel that they cannot return to respec-
table society as the men do, and come to believe that they
are almost right in giving up hope and openly soliciting
favors from any man.
" The probabilities of a decrease in the crime of seduc-
tion are very slight, so long as the present public senti-
ment prevails ; while the seducer is allowed to go unpun-
ished and the full measure of retribution is directed
against his victim; while the offender escapes, but the
offended is condemned. Unprincipled men, ready to take
advantage of woman's trustful nature, abound, and they
pursue their diabolical course unmolested. Legal enact-
ments can scarcely ever reach them, although sometimes a
poor man without friends or money is indicted and con-
victed. The remedy must be left to the world at large.
When our domestic relations are such that a man known
to be guilty of this crime can obtain no admission into the
family circle ; when the virtuous and respectable members
of the community agree that no such man shall be wel-
1 " Among the many safeguards of female purity in the Roman re-
public was an enactment forbidding women even to taste wine ; and
this very intelligible law, being enforced with the earliest education,
became at last, by habit and traditionary reverence, so incorporated
with the moral feelings of tbe people that its violation was spoken
of as a monstrous crime." Lecky, loc. tit., p. 93.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 183
corned to their society; when worth and honor assert their
supremacy over wealth and boldness, there may be hopes
of a reformation, but not till then. " 1
Any true man would exert all his influence to make a
young woman who had just been seduced retrace her steps
while it was not yet altogether impossible to hide her
shame from the world, and this even though she gave him
encouragement to complete her ruin ; and his hand would
wither before he could in any way be a party to her further
damage.
Poverty is probably the most fruitful of all causes which
lead to the downfall of girls.
Unquestionably most girls who have themselves alone
to support could find some kind of employment which
would maintain them if they were willing to work hard;
but when ignorance, poverty and vanity combine forces,
and a life is opened up to them which seems to offer rich
rewards and absolutely no work, then they are indeed in
danger.
The starvation wages paid to young women in stores,
factories, restaurants, etc., compel many of them to earn
money elsewhere ; and when they are thrown upon their
own resources, unequipped by any training to earn their
living, the temptation is very strong to barter away their
virtue for what may seem to them adequate money rewards. 8
1 Sanger, " History of Prostitution, " p. 496.
3 " lu order to show the relation between unpaid and excessive
labor and prostitution, we will instance a few cases.
"One young woman said she made moleskin pantaloons (a very
strong, stiff fabric) at the rate of 15 cents per pair. She could
manage twelve pairs per week when there was full employment ;
sometimes she could not get work. She worked from six in the
morning until ten at night. With full work she could make $2
a week, out of which she had to expend 38 cents for thread and can-
dle. On an average, in consequence of short work, she could not
make more than 75 cents a week. Her father was dead, and she had
to support her mother, who was sixty years of age. This girl en-
184 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
No girl who lias any womanly delicacy or attractiveness
would or does cast herself away by deliberately prostitut-
ing herself, unless under the duress of necessity ; but in-
numerable men are ever ready to seduce her and drain her
very life's blood, thinking to excuse themselves by the
money they pay.
Prostitution is very largely the effect of the unfortunate
circumstances of these poor girls, and the material for
brothels is largely recruited from the stores, the factories
and the "sweat-shops," where they must work many and
weary hours for cruelly small pay.
Factory Inspector O'Leary, of New York State, in urg-
ing the abolition of the sweating system, says in his
Eleventh Annual Eeport (1895) :
" With knee-pants bringing but from 50 to 75 cents per
dozen, vests from $1 to $3 per dozen, trousers from 12^ to
75 cents per pair, and coats from 32 cents to $1.50 each,
with a percentage off these prices for the ' boss sweaters '
and another reduction off for cost of carting, which the
workman is obliged to pay, we cannot expect to find any-
thing but destitution, suffering, intellectual and moral de-
pression, existing among the unfortunate victims of this
pernicious system."
The temptation which men offer to these poor distressed
dured her mode of existence for three years, till at length she agreed
to live with a young man. When she made this statement she was
within three months of her confinement. She felt the disgrace of her
condition, to relieve her from which she said she prayed for death,
and would not have gone wrong if she could have helped it.
"Such a case as this scarcely comes within the term prostitution,
but she stated that many girls at the shop advised prostitution as
a resource, and that others should do as they did, as by that means
they had procured plenty to eat and clothes to wear. She gave it as
her opinion that none of the thousands of girls who work at the same
business earn a livelihood by their needle, but that all must and
do prostitute themselves to eke out a subsistence." Sanger, loc. eit. t
p. 339.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 185
and destitute girls is but too successful a menace to their
rectitude, and reform is hardly to be looked for until the
social conditions which make the fall so easy are righted
by legislation and public sentiment.
Men are all agreed upon the fact that women are not well
equipped by nature to engage in the struggle of life, and that
it is a shame for any woman to be obliged to earn her own
living; but many a poor girl is compelled to leave the shel-
ter of her home in order to support herself and perhaps her
dependent relatives.
It seems hardly necessary to accentuate the fact that
great-hearted men are specially gallant to these unfortu-
nates ; but they are offset by the lustful beasts of prey who
assail the young women as they quietly walk home from
their work at night, and spread before them all sorts of
allurements to lead at first a gay, and then a fast life.
Familiarity and disrespect are shown to almost every at-
tractive woman who has no guardian ; and though many
of them resent it, quite a large number can be led astray
if they are in straitened circumstances and skilfully ap-
proached.
Men of all ages and conditions, married and single, who
are received and recognized in the best social and business
circles, have money in abundance with which to purchase
the degradation of these young women whose " virtue and
purity are the most marketable elements in their lives."
The defencelessness of their position and the sad cir-
cumstance that they are compelled by the hardest kind of
work to eke out a bare subsistence should incline the
hearts of men to help and protect them ; and if they have
fallen on account of the outrageous villainy of others, they
should be judged very tenderly, while no punishment could
be severe enough for the seducers.
Some Girls are Almost Born into Tliis Profession, many of
them being illegitimate, basely born children, or the off-
spring of sensual parents, who perhaps begot them while
186 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
drunk. But, as a rule, if a prostitute has a girl as her il-
legitimate child, she would rather strangle it than see it
lapse from virtue. However much parents may desire to
see their children grow up to a better life, this can never
be realized as long as the force of an evil example is oper-
ating; and unless the mother, particularly, be virtuous,
there is little hope that the children will grow up to be
sweet and pure.
But though the mighty love of even a fallen woman for
her child would impel her to shield it from harm, excep-
tions are yet as common as the inconsistencies of human
beings for sometimes a mother will make a handsome liv-
ing by selling her daughter's favors.
Absence of Beliyious Training and Belief leads straight to
a life of unchastity in a large number of instances. Ee-
ligion is the strongest incentive to purity, and, as a rule,
when it is put aside, morality expires.
Most prostitutes, however, have been brought up in some
religious belief, and some are actually churchgoers, though
few make any attempt to screen themselves under the gospel
colors.
It cannot be said of this class of women that they are
hypocrites; that they make any attempt to appear to be
wearing "the livery of the court of heaven to serve the
devil in"; or that they pretend to be anything but what
they are.
The beauty of the Christian religion, when presented in
the way intended by its Founder, makes a deep impression
on their hearts; but what would the apostles say if they
were to see that hardly a pew in any church invites or wel-
comes or tolerates them, while fallen men hypocrites that
they are bow the knee at the communion-table before the
world !
"But even with their neglect of the outward require-
ments of faith, and while in the actual commission of known
and acknowledged sin, they still preserve many traits which
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 187
are much to their credit. They possess one of the chief
virtues belonging to the female character, which never
seems to become extinct or materially impaired ; namely,
kindness to each other when sick or destitute, and indeed
to all who are in suffering or distress. This has attracted
the attention, and called forth the admiration, of every one
who has been thrown into contact with them." '
Overcrowded Dwellings are a prolific source of contam-
ination.
Among the very poor the members of the family, and
sometimes several families, are in many instances forced
to litter down like pigs in their sleeping apartments, to
perform their ablutions and the acts of nature in each
other's sight, and to listen to little else but depravity ; so
that in such instances the young of both sexes become pre-
cocious in their knowledge of licentiousness without ap-
preciating the natural barriers between the sexes. Sur-
rounded by the fumes of alcohol, hearing obscenity and
cursing, seeing the indecent behavior of their elders, and
being born into such an environment, there can be no won-
der that many of these unfortunate children should follow
the examples which are set them, and never rise out of the
filth of thoir vicious surroundings.
While avaricious landlords and apathetic municipalities
permit such travesties of decency, there can be no hope
for the growth of these children into anything but the
refuse of society natural criminals and vagabonds.
The Abandonment of Wives, and False Marriages, account
for the fall of a considerable number of women.
There are some men base enough to gain the love of un-
suspecting women, and go through the ceremony of mar-
riage, while having wives and children elsewhere. As soon
as pregnancy occurs, these poor women are abandoned,
and, overcome with shame, are readily persuaded to prosti-
tute themselves.
1 Sanger, loc. cit. , p. 547.
188 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The Dreadful Traffic in Girls. One of the consequences
of the selfish and base demands of men for the gratification
of their carnal desires is the unceasing traffic in unpro-
tected girlhood for where there is a demand there will
always be a supply.
Thus the fresh young girls have commodities of ex-
changeable value, which, if offered for sale in the markets,
will bring rich prices ; and as long as this demand remains,
with money to back it, the market will in some way be sup-
plied.
In order to satisfy this monstrous exaction of lustful
men, male and female procurers percolate the lower strata
of society, incessantly recruiting the youngest and most at-
tractive girls they can find for the bawdy-houses.
In Continental Europe there are organized agencies, with
branches in remote sections, whose business it is to keep
and supply attractive women for immoral purposes; and
the same nefarious traffic is flourishing in our own land.
The question for each individual man is, plainly, whether
he shall be a party to anything which thrives on the
smothering out of the lives and the decency of helpless and
agonized young women.
The thoughtless men who patronize brothels are mostly
of the opinion that these women are good for nothing else,
and that they are permanent fixtures there little realizing
that a large proportion of them die every year, that most
of them sink lower and lower with horrible rapidity, and
that their places must be filled, not by worthless and ma-
ture women, but by the youngest, freshest, and most attrac-
tive girls it is possible to secure.
Thus a traffic in girls is absolutely essential to supply the
demand and this must be somewhat further elucidated.
It is a fact, accepted by those who are well qualified to
know, that about one-fourth of the prostitutes drop out
every year, and Sanger says: 1 "The average duration of
1 Loc. cit., p. 455.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 189
life among these women does not exceed four years from
the beginning of their career" ; while some European au-
thorities place the duration of life at five y ears. 1
Exceptionally, however, some of them remain in seem-
ingly fair physical condition for very much longer periods
of time; but on an average one-fourth disappear every
year. So, of course, there must be an active recruiting
service going on, incomparably more exacting than that
required by the military forces, taking no account of the
innumerable servants, shopgirls, chorus-girls, actresses,
waitresses and others, who are led to practise clandestine
prostitution. Furthermore, it is estimated, as nearly as
can be approximated, that for every prostitute there are
five impure men to support her ; and these " lusting beasts
of prey" not only do not want them to reform, but contin-
ually demand new and fresh supplies.
Therefore, since the two factors of supply and demand
are intimately correlated as an axiom of political economy,
if the men show a desire to purchase, then the commodities
will certainly be supplied. Surely all the oceans cannot
wash away the stains from those who shed the costly blood
of these young girls whom they hold so cheap !
There are men and women abroad, called respectively
procurers and procuresses, or pimps, whose sole livelihood
consists in inveigling young girls into this life by force, or
1 Of course it is utterly impossible to obtain reliable statistical in-
formation, and these calculations must not be accepted as anything
but the mere opinions of trustworthy men who are in a position to ob-
serve. The statistics collected by Woods Hutchinson (Medical News,
vol. Ixx. , No. 26, p. 861) , supported by the testimony of Du Chatelet
of Paris, would place their average life at 9.5 years after entering
upon this career ; and other statistics from the police of London and
Paris demonstrate that death does not account for the greater part of
those who disappear. It is certain that where the system of police
control is not in force, a very large number of these women become
tired of the hardships and ignominy of their lives, receiving less
pay as they get older and more familiarized with their work, and
that, when possible, they seek employment in a better life.
190 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
fraud, or other means. " Oh, surely this is a mistake !"
one cries out in his heart of- hearts ; but no the brothel
needs such monsters, who think nothing of entrapping an
innocent girl, of turning her imprudent steps along a tor-
turing path to an outcast's life and a shameful grave, and
who for money lead her to suspect no evil and enshroud
her with the filthy pall of the courtezan. The price of
blood is paid by the defiled men who patronize brothels.
The first thing for a procurer or procuress to do is to get
acquainted with girls who have lost their natural protectors,
or who are away from home in a large city and entirely
dependent upon themselves. For some kinds of work the
procuress succeeds better, and for others the procurer is
better fitted.
At " intelligence offices" for servants, at lodging-houses,
and even at churches, Sunday-schools and hospitals, there
are innumerable opportunities to meet girls who are out of
employment, or who are dissatisfied with their conditions
of life. Many are led into traps by seemingly proper and
enticing advertisements which continually appear in the
columns of the newspapers. When the unsuspecting young
women meet the advertisers, they are delighted with their
pleasing manners and the promise of large wages and easy
work. Thus very often a country lass does not know that
she is a servant in a brothel until many days have elapsed ;
and a little drugged wine, the removal of her clothing so
that she cannot escape, and tact on the part of the mistress
of the house, soon accomplish her ruin. Lurking about
the incoming trains are frequently to be seen ladies and
gentlemen of benevolent aspect who are eager to assist any
innocent-looking girl in, finding employment or a nice lodg-
ing-house. Even the hospitals are visited and friendships
made with destitute girls, by gifts of flowers and other
kindnesses, so that when the deluded victims leave the
ward they confidingly go with the sanctimonious procuress
to their unsuspected doom.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 191
Cabmen sometimes are known to drive girls to wrong
addresses and act as agents for the mistresses of brothels,
receiving money rewards, of course, if the ruse is successful.
In every possible guise of respectability these procurers
and procuresses are going about seeking for attractive and
juvenile women. They must have youth in their business,
for men demand it. Since death flows with a rapid current
through the streets of shame, and youth and beauty soon
fade, others must be found to fill up the ranks for this
lucrative business. Thus the procession goes on and on
from the highest grade of bawdy-house down, down, down
to the basest hovels, and to the pauper's grave. Men force
this upon womankind !
In order to make their houses luxurious, the brothel-
keepers must spend large sums of money, and must of
course retain the most innocent and beautiful young girls
to insure popularity with their customers. If a " madame"
is adroit she gets her live-stock largely into her debt, or,
as the girls express it, " their trunks are nailed to the floor."
Often the very clothes on the girls' backs, and the orna-
ments they wear, are owned by the proprietress, whose
highest interest it is to have them appear luxurious. When
they cease to be a sufficient source of revenue they are
kicked out with little grace.
" People in Europe speak with indignation of the traffic
in negroes. It would be just as well if they would open
their eyes to what is going on much nearer throughout the
whole of Europe, especially in Germany and Austria,
where the exportation of white slaves is carried on on a
large scale. A terrible picture is presented to us of the
enforced movement to and fro upon the face of the earth of
these youthful victims of human cruelty. Numbers are
embarked at Hamburg, whose destination is South
America, Bahia, and Eio de Janeiro. The greater number
are probably engaged for Montevideo and Buenos Ayres ;
others are sent by the Straits of Magellan to Valparaiso.
192 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Other cargoes are sent to North America, some being for-
warded through England, others direct. The competition
which the traders meet with when they land sometimes
constrains them to go farther ahead ; they are found, there-
fore, descending the Mississippi with their cargoes to New
Orleans and Texas. Others are taken on to California.
" In the market of California they are sorted, and thence
taken to provision the different localities on the coast as
far as Panama. Others are sent from the New Orleans
market to Cuba, the Antilles, and Mexico. Others are
taken from Bohemia, Germany, and Switzerland across the
Alps to Italy, and thence farther south to Alexandria and
Suez, and eastward to Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong
Kong, and Shanghai. The Russian official houses of vice
draw their slaves in a great measure from Eastern Prussia,
Pomerania, and Poland. The most important Russian
station is Riga ; it is there that the traders of St. Peters-
burg and Moscow sort and get ready their cargoes for
Nijni-Novgorod, and from this latter place cargoes are sent
on to the more distant towns of Siberia. At Tschita a
young German was found who had been sold and resold in
this manner."
The outcast class is recruited from women under the age
of twenty-one ; and one rescue-worker has said, " The last
'strange woman ' I had to deal with was aged seven years."
She could be used for the sexual perverts.
The children of the poor are forced to go out early in
life to work, and in their ignorance and immaturity the
very qualities that are preyed upon to their hurt they are
no match for the scheming destroyer. Girlhood, not ma-
ture womanhood, is devoted to this industry, and, as em-
ployees, they are too often subject to the control of men
who prove anything but their friends and protectors.
If a woman has fallen from virtue there are a score of
1 Letter of Mrs. Josephine E. Butler to the International Council of
Women at Washington.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 193
influences which prevent her rising again. Until lately,
society has not been represented by any powerful organi-
zations aiming to reform and lift up the wounded women ;
but Christian heroes and heroines none other have of
late actively begun the life-saving work, and have shown
a chivalry only possible to the disciples of Jesus,
which far surpasses the romantic exploits of paper
heroes.
There is a something about the visage and the gait of a
woman who has been degraded which hints at her shame,
so that her countenance is against her, her own sex is
against her, and men are against her. It is because she
is an outcast.
Among the prostitutes of Japan, and in most of the
cities of Southern Europe, the women do not so markedly
show forth this characteristic expression of countenance,
because they have a higher standing in the social scale, and
not infrequently marry. Hope, and a certain favorable
recognition of their services, keep alive in them some of
the attributes of women. The Japanese men are said to
be not at all averse to marrying a woman after she has lived
for a year or so in a tea-house (tsiaya) as a prostitute ; but
then the women in that country seem to be of no account
except as mere chattels, and their standing cannot be
greatly lowered, for they have little. 1
1 "In Japan, houses of prostitution are a national institution ; the
law regulates the costume of the women who inhabit them, and the
duration of their stay. On this point Europe has little to envy Japan.
But what is special to Japan is that the tikakie, the inmates of these
houses, are placed there by their parents themselves, and for a price
that is debated beforehand. These inmates of the tea-houses gener-
ally enter them from the age of fourteen or fifteen years, to live
there till they are twenty-five years old. They are taught to dance,
to sing, to play the guitar, and to write letters. They are lodged in
handsome apartments, where men goto see them openly and without
any mystery.
" They are in no way dishonored by their trade ; many of them marry
13
194 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
But the Anglo-Saxon harlot can rarely hide the trade-
mark of her calling, which is stamped upon her face and
gait and deportment.
Employment is not readily secured by such women,
though most of them could undoubtedly abandon their
lives of shame if they were treated with ordinary consid-
eration. Candor compels us to say, however, that a large
number of these women are influenced by their vanity and
love of fine apparel to continue in infamous idleness rather
than accept menial positions with really hard work and
small pay.
An ignorant prostitute, unfit for anything but labor, can
dress expensively and surround herself with comforts such
as ladies have, all without effort or any equipment of edu-
cation. Thus a large number of harlots are unquestionably
so from choice, and prefer a continuance of that life to hard
work and small pay. Such are obviously "lost women"
after being started on the downward path they elect to
continue in this degraded calling. However, scores of
women who might be considered "lost" are readily re-
stored to decency if they come under the influence of
friendly help.
Many of these women, after age has rapidly crept on and
their charms have faded, become keepers of brothels them-
selves, or set up that obnoxious modern innovation so
widely advertised in the newspapers as " Massage Parlors,"
which are nothing but another variety of bawdy-houses
adapted to suit another kind of sexual perverts.
Not a few women are kept mistresses of rich men and
illicitly occupy the places of wives, though entailing greater
expense than would suffice to keep a respectable family in
comfort. One cannot help wondering what a man can
think of himself for keeping down a human being in such
very well afterward ; it even happens that respectable citizens go to
seek an agreeable wife in these houses of pleasure. " Letourneau,
"The Evolution of Marriage," p. 158.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 195
infamy of slavery and in such cruelly hopeless and relent-
less disgrace, when his money and his so-called "love"
might so much better be expended in the achievement of
her reformation. With a little assistance and sympathy
many an erring woman could unquestionably be saved ; and
the contrast between pushing a tender, weakly, and easily
persuaded girl down further and further in the mire, and
of lifting her up by the manly strength of real love, is as
great as what we mean by the difference between Heaven
and Hell. Some of them are perhaps too deeply wounded
by curses, disease, drink and despair to be saved; but an
upright man would not remain in the same class with those
who contribute to their ruin, but rather make the attempt
to discountenance such traffic and to save them.
These prostitutes are indeed outcasts the law in the
State of Missouri even going so far as to say that their
testimony cannot be accepted, while further saying that
" such character in a man does not in like manner affect
his character for veracity."
In the ante-bellum days slaves were cared for by their
masters when they became old, and the relationship be-
tween master and servant was often a tender one. How is
it with a man's mistress his " white slave" ? She becomes
of less and less value with length of service and experience,
and the man's pseudo-love rapidly passes away when she
is no longer pleasing; and if conception occur, both she
and the child are usually abandoned. His money will buy
younger women in the comparative bloom of innocence ; and
the worn-out mistress, like the prostitute of the bawdy-
house, becomes a candidate for the jail, the hospital, the
poorhouse and the potter's field. All the burden and dis-
grace are put on the woman sinner, the attempt being made
to make everything safe and attractive for the male ; but the
idea is false that he can escape an utter moral degradation,
if not physical as well.
All Nature, all reason, all pity and all love cry out
196 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
against the base doctrine that a host of young women must
be drawn into the vortex to appease the appetites of men.
"Mr. Crittenton estimates that there are two hundred
and thirty -two thousand prostitutes in our country to-day.
Their average life is five years. Every five years, then,
two hundred thousand pure girls must be dishonored and
spoiled to supply the demand of lust ! Ancient and heathen
Athens used to go into mourning because, every nine years,
seven youths and seven maidens had to be furnished for
the devouring Minotaur of Crete. How ought we, then,
as a nation to prostrate ourselves before God in seeking
deliverance from this monstrous evil that every year de-
vours forty thousand of our pure maidens and pollutes two
hundred thousand of our pure youths !" 1
Besides those who earn their living solely by prostitu-
tion, there are an enormous number who must be habitually
unchaste clandestinely in order to support themselves.
A Parisian official, Lecour, in his report upon prostitu-
tion, advocated the supervision by the police of large num-
bers of the single and unprotected working-girls who were
known to be earning an amount insufficient to live upon.
He claimed that they should be regarded as suspicious
characters, and treated to all intents and purposes as har-
lots. Much the same condition exists in all our large cities ;
and many hard-working girls, victims of their employers'
greed, are thus compelled to practise clandestine prostitu-
tion.
The general public does not at all appreciate the number
of women who have fallen, because they are submerged and
out of the view of respectable society. In New York city,
there are estimated to be from 30,000 to 40,000 prostitutes;
and the statement is made by conservative authorities that
out of every fifty-five inhabitants, including men, women
and children, one is a prostitute.
In the space at our command we cannot enter into a
1 Rev. Frank M. Goodchild, in The Arena, March, 1896.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 197
statistical analysis of the yearly cost of prostitution, but
the reader will hardly be surprised at the statement that it
is enormous. In considering the sum of money which is
expended on prostitution it is fair to take account of the
fees which are paid to the prostitutes, the usual wines and
liquors for which exorbitant prices are charged, the revelry
in dance-halls and saloons which are patronized by prosti-
tutes, the medical expenses at hospitals and dispensaries,
the care of those who become pauperized, the cost of police
supervision, the rental of the houses, etc., etc.
Sixty -five millions of dollars a year paid out for prosti-
tution in New York city at the present time, without ac-
counting for the hospital or police expenses, or the rentals,
would be a most conservative estimate, basing this figure
on the factors laid down by Sanger in 1858, l and taking no
account of the greater expenditure of money at the close of
this century. Fully five times as many men as women are
degraded by impurity, and they supply the funds for this
business. But the enormous tribute of money which men
pay to vice is as nothing in comparison to the racial degra-
dation and damnation.
Mirth and revelry may seem to be inseparably connected
with prostitution, and a casual observer would suppose
that the pleasure of that kind of life predominated over the
pain ; but the mirth is a sham for none care for a discon-
solate and tearful harlot.
Conscious that their condition in every respect is wholly
unsatisfactory, that the terms of endearment with which
they are addressed mean nothing but a stimulus to a base
sentimentalism, and that their path leads away from mar-
riage to premature aging, disease and death, they cannot
for a moment be happy.
" And amid all this array of luxurious homes, of splendid
dresses, of comparative affluence, the question arises, Are
they happy? A moment's consideration will prompt the
1 "History of Prostitution," pp. 600 et seq. t guod vide.
198 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
answer that they cannot be. Continued indulgence in
their course of life tends to obliterate the sense of degra-
dation, and makes their career almost second nature, but
even the most confirmed must at times reflect. The mem-
ory of what they have been, the thought of what they are,
the dread of what they must be, haunt their minds ; con-
science will make itself heard. Many a poor girl dressed
in silks or satins, gleaming with jewelry, and receiving
with a gay smile the lavish compliments of her 'friend/
is mentally racked with a keen appreciation of her true
position. She knows that the world condemns her, and
her own heart admits the justice of the verdict. She
knows that he who is so ostentatiously parading his admi-
ration regards her but as a purchased instrument to minis-
ter to his gratification. She feels that she is, emphatically,
alone in the world, and her merry laugh but ill conceals a
breaking heart." 1
The number of prostitutes who commit suicide, led to it
by the utter hopelessness of their condition, is far beyond
what we might expect. As far as this life goes, at least,
the women realize that they are utterly ruined, and under
such circumstances it seems incomprehensible that any one
could conceive of their being happy.
Fornicators and prostitutes and the keepers of brothels
desire nothing so much as to be let alone ; and he who op-
poses them, by endeavoring to bring about reforms, re-
ceives their condemnation for calling the public attention
to this festering pestilence which is insidiously ruining so
large a number of our young men and women.
Impurity thrives on ignorance ; but, as in medical prac-
tice, the cure can come only when we understand the char-
acter, cause, course and prognosis of the malady. A
strong and ardent passion which exerts such a venomous
power in destroying our homes, and in ruining the stabil
ity of society by entailing degradation, illegitimacy, abor-
1 Sanger, loc. tit., p. 552.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 199
tions, and ineradicable disease, surely merits the profound
consideration of every right-minded man.
There are those who contend that a consideration of
these matters is ill-timed, immodest, and productive of no
good ; but this is the talk only of the advocates of impurity.
Of course we cannot hope to reform the world entirely, any
more than our predecessors have been able to eradicate
crime by the imposition of formidable punishments. But
we shall have gained a great advance if we can bring the
individual and the public to see that social impurity is un-
necessary and indefensible upon any ground whatever, and
when we can secure the associated action of society for the
reprobation of those who wantonly indulge in sin to the
irreparable damage of their own health and the cmbitter-
ment of the lives of womankind and posterity.
A careful scientific examination of the question shows
that the physical results of prostitution are most deplorable
to both sexes ; for practically all who transgress are contam-
inated sooner or later, and the heritage which posterity
gets is a deterioration of infamous proportions. Succeed-
ing generations will rise up as a veritable " cloud of wit-
nesses" to the shame of such progenitors.
Those men who argue in favor of prostitution, and live
accordingly, say that it has always existed since the world
began, and that our ancestors surely could not have been
entirely wrong. But witchcraft, sorcery, and the magic
art of divination, which were accepted by our forbears, have
been put aside as unscientific, while prostitution has been
retained as a recognized institution because it is pleasur-
able. And it is assured permanency to a certain degree
until we are aided by the unanswerable truths of science to
control ourselves and put it also aside.
But it is a terrible and damnable fraud to contend that
impurity is in any way necessary for any one ; and it is the
bounden duty of each conscientious individual to under-
stand the matter fully, decide for himself, and then throw
200 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
his influence on whichever side appeals to his manhood
and his reason.
The efforts which have been exerted heretofore have been
mainly in the direction of endeavoring to rescue fallen
women; but laudable as this undoubtedly is, it is never-
theless ineffective. It is the men who must be appealed to
and regulated for as long as they simply create a demand
by their patronage there will surely be a supply. And of
what avail can it be if for every rescued girl a fresh one is
pushed over the brink to fill up the gap caused by her with-
drawal? Evidently then, it is the height of folly, from a
scientific standpoint, to attempt to improve these condi-
tions while the active and primal cause of the degradation
is left untouched. The fault is that there is a Double Stand-
ard of morality one rule for men and another for women.
A portion of womankind are told off to lead chaste lives, and
another portion to be abominably profligate, while many
men reserve the right to be as impure as they please, at
least at some time in their lives, and foolishly entertain
the pernicious belief that their perversity will not result in
lasting detriment to their character and health and off-
spring. 1
If we maintain the doctrine that prostitution is a neces-
sity, then it is an error to rescue any outcast woman, since
her place will then have to be supplied by some young girl
who is not yet defiled. Like the leeches in Ceylon, which
sometimes adhere so thickly to the beasts when they wade
1 " Under these circumstances, there has arisen in society a figure
which is certainly the most mournful, and in some respects the most
awful, upon which the eye of the moralist can dwell. That unhappy
being whose very name is a shame to speak ; who counterfeits with
a cold heart the transports of affection, and submits herself as the
passive instrument of lust ; who is scorned and insulted as the vilest
of her sex, and doomed, for the most part, to disease and abject
wretchedness and an early death, appears in every age as the per-
petual symbol of the degradation and the sinf ulness of man. " Lecky,
loc.cit. t vol. ii., p. 283.
PROSTITUTION AND THE INFLUENCES TO SUCH A LIFE. 201
through the streams as to cover them, they should be al-
lowed to remain where they are, for flesh and blood can
endure no more depletion.
The civilization of the future is somewhat protected from
vitiation by the incapacity of the profligate class of men
and 'women to procreate ; and the death-rate of these poor
women who have been unfitted for motherhood is further
augmented by the excessive use of alcohol.
This sterility of the prostitutes on account of disease is
desirable, since as a rule they are notably ignorant and
degenerate, and if they propagated their kind to any con-
siderable extent the race would be materially corrupted by
the twofold influences of undesirable mothers and fathers.
Thus the biological law of the " survival of the fittest"
protects our race, and the perpetuation of the species is
mostly left to the healthy men and women, the healthiest
and best individuals continually having the favors of Na-
ture showered upon them and their children. In view of
these unquestionable scientific facts, no man can hope to
retain his health of body, nor his character as a gentleman,
if he continue in such infamy as we have discussed. Any
man who is governed by knightly feeling will feel in regard
to all women and especially women who are young and un-
protected that they are somebody's daughters or sisters,
and will be most jealous of any license or offence offered
to them.
CHAPTEE
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION.
EUROPEAN governments have for many decades experi-
mented with the legalizing and regulating of prostitution
elevating it to the dignity of a state institution. In the
lands where this infamous system is legalized, the possi-
bility that any man shall remain chaste and pure is hardly
conceived of by either men or women ; and it is taken for
granted that the sons of the family must have their mis-
tresses.
There being a continual demand for fresh batches of
young girls to take the places of those who have been
crowded out by disease and death, as previously shown, a
lamentable proportion of women have consequently been
degraded, and no unprotected girl of the lower classes is
safe from the machinations of the procurers and procuresses
wherever the system of Eegulation is in force.
In those countries the police reports show an increase in
the number of brothels, an increase in the number of regis-
tered women, and an enormous increase in clandestine pros-
titution. Moreover, there has been an increase in the
spread of loathsome diseases, and the whole system in
every detail has proved a delusion to the men and a snare
to the women. 1
"There is probably no country in which the provisions of this
Contagious Disease Act have been so thoroughly carried out as in
Germany ; nevertheless, the commission appointed by the Society
of Medicine of Berlin, with Professor Virchow as president, recently
reported, as the result of an investigation, that both prostitution and
venereal diseases were found to be rapidly increasing in Berlin. For
example, the number of regular prostitutes, recognized as such by
204 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The alleged aim and object of legal sanction and the
state regulation of vice is, of course, to secure the protec-
tion of the public health and to shield the pure women from
harm; but we shall presently see how preposterous are
both these propositions.
The chief purpose of regulation is to have the harlots
examined by medical inspectors, once or twice a week, in
order to insure men a relative safety from contracting dis-
ease. The advocates of this plan claim that there are a
large number of vicious men whose appetites must be ap-
peased, and for their sake a proportional number of girls
must be set apart and condemned to the lowest abyss of
shame. Of course, men must frankly acknowledge that all
these regulation schemes have been adopted solely in order
to make fornication safe for them, while the women's inter-
the police, was, in 1886, 3, 006. The number had increased in 1891
to 4, 864, an increase of almost 50 per cent. This represents, how-
ever, but a small proportion of the women actually engaged in prosti-
tution, as 16,000 women are annually arrested for plying their voca-
tion upon the streets in Berlin, and it is known that a great number
of women live lives of prostitution clandestinely, so that the com-
mittee estimate the total number of prostitutes in Berlin at 40, 000 to
50,000.
" Some idea of the number of persons who are annually infected by
venereal disease may be gained from the fact that the committee re-
ported nearly 80, 000 cases as having been treated at two hospitals
alone in Berlin between 1880 and 1889. The fact was also mentioned
by the committee that a great number of cases were doubtless not
included in this category. They quote the estimate of Blaschko,
that one in every nine or ten of the male population of Berlin has
been infected with syphilis.
" A most convincing evidence of the utter inefficiency of the in-
spection service in preventing the spread of venereal disease, was
shown by the fact developed by the committee, that the naked-eye
inspection, which has been universally relied upon, detects less than
one in five of the cases of gonorrhoea, to say nothing of syphilis.
By making a bacteriological examination of each case, the proportion
of prostitutes found to be suffering from gonorrhoea was increased
from 9 per cent to 50 per cent. " J. H. Kellogg, M. D. , loc. cit. , p. 249.
THE REGULATION OB* PROSTITUTION. 205
ests are entirely ignored, since they are to be put into the
lazaretto as soon as infected which they speedily will be
and the vacancies caused by their withdrawal are to be
filled with fresh and healthy women.
It seems a powerful argument when the promulgators of
this system declare that it is their desire to throw safe-
guards around the pure women of the community ; but this
is a mistaken assumption, since the exact opposite obtains.
It is, indeed, in those very countries and cities where pros-
titution is licensed that virtuous women and working-girls
cannot walk the streets without being accosted and in-
sulted.
The advocates of this system would separate women into
two classes the sheep and the goats saying that these
must be absolutely chaste, and those absolutely unchaste ;
the barriers between them are to be impenetrable, while the
men may freely consort with both groups.
Harlotry is admittedly the worst use to which a woman
can be put, as hanging is for a man ; and the country which
goes into such a perfidious business offers a Paradise to
knaves, but a Hell to women and children. To some men,
all winds are contrary which do not blow in the evil direc-
tion they desire ; and such are continually striving to intro-
duce into our country the customs which the governments
of Europe have tried and found ineffectual.
The wickedness of a nation's laws reflects the weakness
and the wickedness of the lawmakers ; and before the bar
of Justice and the Court of Heaven a plea that crime must
be recognized can gain no remission of the dire conse-
quences. Just as men do not demand nor expect chastity
from all women, but only from a portion of them, so the
law, when it recognizes vice, does not attempt to dispense
equity nor pretend to expect morality only partially so.
Certain forms of wickedness such as murder, theft,
arson, perjury, rape, etc. the law absolutely discounte-
nances and does not attempt to trifle with. But while rec-
206 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ognizing that sexual immorality means social degradation,
and that it is a most prolific source of crimes in general, it
nevertheless tolerates and condones it, and in many coun-
tries has even actually favored it.
"There are no grotesques in Nature," and shame will
fall upon that nation which adopts the scoundrel maxim
that unchastity is necessary for the health of men. The
appetite comes by eating ; and vice, if cherished and stim-
ulated, will excite a relish for indulgence which Nature
never intended, until the frightful monster ] ashes and
stings the immoral gluttons, and menaces with the foulest
corruptions the community in which it is tolerated. Such
cobweb laws cannot restrain the fixed activities of the uni-
verse, and when law is not at least to some extent in
accord with the eternal truths which science has revealed,
then tyranny begins.
Prostitution is regarded as the shame of women; it is
not it is the shame of men. It is the unwholesome play
of men, but the degradation and death of women.
In the United States there is no regulation of prostitu-
tion openly recognized by law ; but propositions are con-
stantly brought before the legislatures of the various
States, having in view the " State Regulation and Control
of Vice. " Within the past few years strenuous efforts have
been made to secure the licensing of brothels in New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago,
Pittsburg, San Francisco, and some other cities; but
public sentiment has so far caused the projects to fail
with one exception, the St. Louis experiment of 1870-73.
This St. Louis experiment of 1870 was the one instance in
our country in which regulation was enforced by law, in
accordance with the recommendations of commissioners
who were sent to Europe to study the methods there in
vogue. It, however, proved an utter failure, and was re-
pealed by the Missouri legislature of 1873 in deference to
the appeals of the best citizens, assembled in mass-meet-
THE REGULATION OP PROSTITUTION. 207
ings. During the unwholesome years in which the license
laws were in force there, the number of prostitutes in-
creased at the rate of twenty per cent a year, and vene-
real disease extended in a corresponding ratio, as shown
by the records of the United States Marine Hospital.
The license system has been found pernicious and has
been repealed in many municipalities and localities in
France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Germany,
Holland, Sweden, and some other countries; and Great
Britain and Norway have absolutely abolished all regula-
tions. For us to take it up would be a step downward.
And yet the reader has probably heard intelligent men
lawyers, doctors, business men, and even occasionally a
minister of the Gospel assert strongly that the police
should be given control to license and regulate brothels for
the safety of the community and the prevention of disease.
To every important question there are two sides a right
and a wrong one and it is the duty of every citizen to seek
light ; to have a reason for the faith that is in him ; to see
when he cannot argue against the inevitable, and in no
case to be an invertebrate.
The expounding of this subject rightly belongs to the
medical profession, while to the layman is left the work of
appointing the authorities who shall frame and execute the
laws ; so it is surpassingly important for every citizen to
be thoroughly informed as to the exact truth. Truth is
adamantine absolutely unbending and uncomplying ; and
therefore it is not astonishing that the majority of think-
ing men and women, who are in a position to understand
the question, are unconditionally opposed to this unscien-
tific and unnatural law which is rightly termed license.
208 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF PROSTITUTES FOR DISEASE.
The plan of compelling the inmates of bawdy-houses to
submit to medical inspection once or even twice a week is
so unscientific and unreasonable that its absurdity cannot
fail to be at once apparent to the merest tyro in medical
matters ; and in fact, no government or municipality which
has ever enforced this system has been able to materially
lessen the disease which goes hand in hand with prosti-
tution.
In some countries, in certain localities subject to mili-
tary rule, the soldiers as well as the prostitutes are sub-
mitted to inspection by well-qualified surgeons ; and the
diseased of both sexes are promptly sent to hospital until
no longer considered capable of spreading contamination.
Of course this lessens the spread of venereal disease at
the military cantonments ; but it must be remembered that
most of the women, as soon as they have reason to believe
that they are diseased, flee to the surrounding towns in
order to avoid the examinations of the military surgeons,
and there spread havoc among the civilians who are unpro-
tected by the same system. Therefore all statistics com-
piled from army records are inapplicable to civilian com-
munities where the uninspected men are free to roam at
will and communicate disease.
Laymen impute powers to the medical profession which
we do not possess, and think that any doctor can tell at a
glance when a man or a woman has venereal disease. But
in reality the highest degree of medical skill is required in
order to diagnose these disorders, except when they are in
an active stage of development ; and one examination, how-
ever thorough, is practically valueless in giving assurance
of the absence of venereal disease. As previously men-
tioned, it is at times very easy to say when a patient has
venereal disease, but most difficult to decide that he or she
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 209
has it not. For the detection of gonorrhoea, several exam-
inations must be made by the most skilful experts ; and
for the recognition of syphilis we have, during the greater
extent of the progress of the disease, absolutely no proofs
except the patient's verbal history of the case and those
who would be subjected to inspection by force of law would
naturally lie.
To determine bacteriologically whether gonorrhoea is
present or not, the venereal specialist is compelled, in
doubtful cases, to keep the suspect under observation for
at least two weeks ; and it is a common procedure to arti-
ficially produce an irritation in the urethra, in order to
favor the reappearance of the disease germs in the dis-
charges.
The health department of every town quarantines all
cases of small-pox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, cholera and
diphtheria, whether occurring in man, woman, or child;
and yet the regulation system has attempted to examine
only the prostitutes for venereal disease, while it is esti-
mated that five times as many men as women are unchaste !
" No system of inspection can ever be effective so long as
it applies to but one party in the act, and that party, col-
lectively, in the minority. Regulation of vice is not only
unjust to women, it is not only immoral and cowardly, but
it is utterly unscientific. You might as well try to pre-
vent the spread of small-pox or cholera by quarantining
one sex only." J
At the time of the medical examination of the prostitute
for disease she might appear perfectly healthy ; for the in-
cubation period in gonorrhoea lasts usually from two to six
days, and in syphilis usually from ten to forty days, dur-
ing which periods there are no symptoms, although the
patient is almost certain to spread infection.
Dr. Mauriac, attending physician to the Hopital du
1 "Personal Purity," by Prof. Howard A. Kelley, M.D., of Johns
Hopkins University.
14
210 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Midi, Paris, and one of the greatest authorities in Europe,
says:
" If you imagine that the public health is the supreme
law, and that it is necessary to employ every means to
safeguard it, then strike at the man as well as the
woman. . . . You exact from these miserable women
guarantees for your health, but what guarantees do you
give them? None whatever; you infect, and you expect
not to be infected; you have therefore caused the system
to fail."
At The Hague, in Holland, Dr. Huet, the prefect of
police, a surgeon of high standing, says : " The number of
' clandestine ' women cannot be estimated and is continu-
ally increased. You ask me if the laws of regulation work
well for morality. I reply, No! Do they work well for
suppression of syphilis? I reply, No! Do they really
diminish disease? My opinion is, No, no, no!"
Physicians are beginning to deliberate on the expediency
of sending in to the health department reports of every
case of venereal disease, just as they are now required by
law to do in cases of other contagious or infectious dis-
eases; for gonorrhoea and syphilis are productive of the
most deleterious effects, so that medical men believe that
it would be far better for the human family if those who
go about uncured were wiped out of existence.
If the medical examination of prostitutes did anything
to lessen venereal disease and insured a sanitary improve-
ment for the community at large if the experience of other
nations had proved it so if it were scientifically reasona-
ble if it shielded the innocent or diminished the amount
of prostitution, we should be inclined to favor it; for the
abolishment of such dire calamity from the present race
and from posterity would in a measure counterbalance the
degradation inflicted upon these poor women whom men
havo set aside for torture, just as the physiologists have
set aside a lot of guinea-pigs and rabbits and frogs, and
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 211
other animals for vivisection, with the ultimate public
good in view.
In some parts of Europe the women are driven in vans
bi-weekly to dispensaries, where they pass in review be-
fore the examiners. Surely neither America nor England
can abide to see these unsightly covered wagons, nor tole-
rate the house-to-house visitation !
" In the year 1869, while studying in Paris, I used often
to see passing along the pleasant streets great closed wag-
ons, covered with black. Inquiring of my elegant land-
lady the explanation of these sombre vehicles, she an-
swered sorrowfully : ' It is the demi-monde who go to be
examined. ' I then learned for the first time that in Paris
fallen women have a legal ' .permit ' to carry on what is a
recognized business, but must remain secluded in their
houses at certain hours, must avoid certain streets, and
must go once a week, under escort of the police, to the
dispensary for examination and certificate that they are
exempt from contagious disease. Always after that, those
awful wagons seemed to me to form the most heart-break-
ing funeral procession that ever Christian woman watched
with aching heart and tear-dimmed eyes. If I were asked
why there has come about such a revolution in public
thought that I have gained the courage to speak of things
once unlawful to be told, and you may listen without fear
of criticism from any save the base, my answer would be :
" ' Because lawmakers tried to import the black wagon
of Paris to England and America, and Anglo-Saxon women
rose in rebellion. ' " 1
To obviate the necessity of appointing public examiners,
it has been proposed that the prostitutes might be allowed
to choose their own doctors for the examination. In this
case then, any one legally authorized to practise medicine
could sign the certificate of health, and the outcasts of the
1 Frances E. Willard. Address before the Chicago Central
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
212 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
profession would soon get all this class of work. Assur-
edly none of the women would patronize the scientific spe-
cialists the only ones whose word is worth having in these
cases because their methods are necessarily exact and
painstaking, and they would require the patient to remain
under observation for many days, even in cases apparently
well, before signing any certificate of health. Though we
have stated with emphasis that it is quite impossible to
demonstrate that a woman is free from gonorrhoea or syph-
ilis without the most skilful methods of research, and
without keeping the patient under observation for many
days or even weeks, still let us grant that a given prostitute
is perfectly clean at a given time. What if she is? Does
she not go from the examination directly back to her dan-
gerous calling, where the first male with whom she cohab-
its may be infected with disease? And will not all who
follow after this diseased man be jeopardized?
Any person of common sense must quickly see that all
these perfunctory medical examinations of the prostitutes
are outrageously preposterous, and that the quarantine, in
order to have any value, must be extended so that the
equally diseased fivefold majority shall also be subjected
to medical inspection before they are allowed to set foot in
the brothels.
Any system of regulation dealing with the highly in-
fectious and serious venereal diseases precisely as with
the specific contagious fevers would be cordially indorsed
by every scientific man, and this is the only possible way
in which to check the spread of these maladies ; but, in
order to enforce it, we should be compelled to provide a
large increase in the police force for patrolling the haunts
of vice, and to imprison in the lazaretto all those who are
diseased, male and female alike.
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 213
THE CRUELTY AND INJUSTICE OF THE KEGULATION SYSTEM.
Expediency may at times render necessary the tempo-
rary enactment of laws which are not altogether equitable ;
as, for instance, when civil rights are extinguished or sus-
pended by martial law to the fullest extent required by the
exigencies of war. But in the ordinary course of things,
in a republican form of government, legislation must be
applied with equal justice to man, woman and child, of
all sorts and conditions. Let us consider then, if we can
tolerate those iniquitous laws which the European Govern-
ments have long enforced, but will abandon, in all proba-
bility, within the next few years.
Now in vivid narration we must record the self-evident
fact that both sexes are concerned in illegitimate love and
adultery, but unequally so, with the disadvantage against
the men. It is the males who form the fivefold majority,
who supply the capital by which the trade thrives, and
who create the demand which supports the traffic in girls
it is they who infect their pure wives, and spread conta-
gion from one house of ill-fame to another.
Any government which enforces unjust legislation com-
mits the greatest possible crime against its people ; but
governments are in the control of men, and men never have
been gallant to the weak and the disfranchised.
Such laws are axiomatically bad, because they are liable
to great abuses ; and there is painful and abundant evidence
that respectable girls, who must of necessity go along the
streets at night unattended, have been insulted and out-
raged by the officials authorized to enforce the provisions
of the regulation laws.
" Here are a few stories showing how regulation works
in foreign lands :
a ln Brescia, Italy, a respectable young woman was ar-
214 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
rested by the police who worked the system. She wept
and implored to be spared the humiliation of examination,
declaring that she was virtuous and pure, and her old father
and mother also protested and implored in vain. She was
dragged to the hospital and subjected to the examination.
When brought before the doctor her manner was entirely
changed ; she no longer implored or wept ; she was calm
and decided. After the examination, the doctor pro-
nounced her a virgin. She waited until he had made a
declaration to this effect, and then, without uttering a word,
went to the window and threw herself out. She was taken
up dead.
" In Paris a respectable young working-woman went out
in the evening to fetch a doctor for her child, taken sud-
denly ill with the croup. The ' morals police, ' as they are
hypocritically called in France, chose to ' suspect ' her of
being a prostitute, and arrested her. She explained mat-
ters to them, and told them that her child was dying of
croup. They jeered at her, and insisted on taking her to
the examination house. There the poor woman, distraught
at being prevented from caring for her child, and appalled
by the outrage to which she was subjected, very naturally
went into hysterics. Then the police charged her with be-
ing ' a drunk and disorderly prostitute, ' and she was sen-
tenced to a month's imprisonment. Her baby died during
her absence, and when she got out of prison she was child-
less and ' a registered prostitute. ' " 1
Many, many instances of the grossest cruelty occur daily
wherever the inspection system is in force. Police super-
vision can reach only a small number of loose women,
and such are easily blackmailed. The great mass of
harlots seek to hide their shame, and never come for-
ward voluntarily to be blacklisted; these go about with
1 " State Regulation of the Social Evil, " by Howard A. Kelly,
A.M., M.D., Professor of Gynecology, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Md.
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 215
their secret diseases, and never can be included in the
inspection.
The infected women should in every way be encouraged
to seek medical relief ; but if a clandestine prostitute ap-
ply for treatment she is certain to be reported and put
on the register. Naturally they detest the thought of be-
ing in the power of the police doctors and of being com-
pelled to report for examinations ; and they do not wish to
be forced to withdraw from thcdr avocation, even tempora-
rily. Consequently these women, being led to hide their
disease, are more dangerous by far than the prostitutes in
unregulated countries, who do not hesitate to apply for
relief at the dispensaries and hospitals.
Compulsory examination is in its abstract audacity a
legalized assault. It is an easy matter for the police to
entrap and register and outrage every unprotected woman
who has no visible means of support ; but it is an awful
sight to see those of them who refuse to be degraded by
examination in the ugly prison garb which is put upon
them as a punishment.
Such injustice is intolerable in enlightened countries.
Without trial, without the right of appeal, with no provi-
sion for redress, robbed of all the most inviolable personal
rights, these women are to be more grossly enslaved by
the police authorities than ever the Africans were, and are
to be forcibly subjected to the authoritative will of the most
unscrupulous and inefficient pariahs of the medical profes-
sion, those low-caste officers of the law styled "medical
inspectors of prostitutes."
The days of a nation are numbered when it allows con-
siderations of policy to supersede conscience when it
metes out injustice and brutality when it protects a com-
merce which places the young, the poor, and the innocent
at the mercy of the foulest bidders for human flesh, and
when it fashions its laws in compromise with the Devil.
TJie Results of the Regulation System. In plain words,
216 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
such a system gives sanction and protection to brothels,
though not disputing that these quarters are the manufac-
tories of everything that is indecent, and the harbors of
refuge for every class of men whom the detectives seek.
In no possible way could the State do more to demoralize
society, spread disease, ruin posterity, and protect crimi-
nals. This has been so obvious in those countries where
the regulation-laws have been in force, that municipality
after municipality has seen fit to abandon them ; and royal
commissions of eminently well-qualified men, including
some of Europe's most eminent scientists, such as Huxley,
Virchow, Blaschko, Neumann, etc., have unanimously and
unequivocably proclaimed this method most unscientific
and a complete fraud.
See how the results of this system appeared in Berlin in
1892. " In the consideration of this question, the propor-
tion of public to private prostitution in Berlin is important.
While more than 5,000 prostitutes are registered, accord-
ing to police estimates more than 50,000 live by prostitu-
tion." 1
In Paris it is even worse. The police look on stupefied
and aghast at the awful condition which has grown up
around them, and are forced to acknowledge that their vile
system of tyranny can reach only one-tenth of the women
who live by prostitution.
And even with inspections the police surgeons do not
begin to make efficient reports.
"Neisser, of Breslau, with several assistants, examined
573 prostitutes; and in 216 he found gonococci present
(37.6 per cent). Dr. Passavant, of Paris, is quoted as
saying that out of every 100 inscribed women, 35 to 50
per cent have venereal disease. Dr. Fiaux shows that
in Belgium, in 1881-1889, one-half of the inmates of the
licensed houses had to be sent to the hospitals for treat-
1M Suggestive Therapeutics in Psychopathia Sexualis," Schrenck-
Notzing, p. 38. Translated by Chaddock.
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 217
menfc with venereal disease, of whom about 50 per ce"nt
were syphilitic. Of inscribed women, about one-third
were treated at the hospitals, about one-sixth of these
being syphilitic. Laser, in an extensive examination of
prostitutes for the presence of gonococci, found in the ex-
amination of the urethra of 353 patients that the gonococci
could be demonstrated 112 times, although in four-fifths
of these cases there was no macroscopical evidence of gon-
orrhea. Several of these patients had been discharged
from the hospitals as cured."
After prolonged trial of the method, the consensus of
opinion among scientific men and among the police offi-
cials is that the system is inefficient.
" The general opinion in the Berlin Congress was that
venereal disease was on the increase, and that measures
must be taken to check its advance. Blaschko in his paper
stated that, from the standpoint of public hygiene, no ben-
efit whatever was received from the control as then prac-
tised. A commission consisting of Yirchow, Blaschko,
Meyer, Strassman, Langerhaus, Yillaret, B. Frankel, Pis-
tor, Lewin, S. Neumann, B. and M. Wolf were appointed
to consider the subject ; and they reported that the sani-
tary conditions and measures existing in Berlin for the
prevention and treatment of venereal disease were insuffi-
cient. And this was the general opinion arrived at by all
the men throughout Europe who had the investigation in
hand, that the protection did not protect, neither did the
control check the advance of the evil.
" Having arrived at this definite conclusion, the next point
was what should be done. Here the opinions varied great-
ly. One of the French ministers told Lassar that the con-
ditions varied so in the different cities that no general law
was possible, but that each municipality must deal with
the problem as it was presented to it. Another French
1 "Prostitution The Relation of the Experience of Europe to the
Solution of the Problem in Boston," by Arthur K. Stone, M.D.
218 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
minister, Gayot, who has given this subject a great deal
of study and written a book upon prostitution, has reached
the conclusion that abolition is the proper thing and pros-
titution is a moral and personal question, and that there
was no reason why it should be recognized by protecting
law, taking the position that has so far been held in Eng-
land and America."
If one city maintain the regulation system, the neigh-
boring cities and towns suffer, because the women very
naturally migrate from the "protected" districts, where
they will be subjected to outrage, and even imprisonment
if diseased. In the same manner, if one nation enforces
this system, the contiguous nations suffer; thus, London
is filled with the refuse of Europe's prostitutes. If the
advocates of the regulation system are in earnest about
protecting the decent members of the community, they will
make provision that the men must have licenses to indulge
in fornication as well as the women ; that licenses will not
under any circumstances be issued to married men, but
only to boys past eighteen and bachelors and widowers ;
that both sexes must submit to an inspection far more
searching than anything now required ; that the license of
a diseased male or female profligate shall be revoked and
the victim incarcerated in a lazaretto until pronounced in-
nocuous by a skilled corps of medical examiners, consist-
ing of female physicians for the women, and of male phy-
sicians for the men ; and that if a woman become pregnant
she shall be withdrawn, tenderly cared for in a retreat, and
her illegitimate child reared up as a ward of the State
until twenty-one years of age.
If some lawyer will take his cue from the above and
elaborate such a bill in legal form for presentation to a
legislative body, there will be thousands of sensible people
who will support it. As a rider to his bill he should also
make provision for an increase in the local police force in
>A. K. Stone., M.D., loc. tit.
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 219
order to contend successfully with the opposition of the
men who might be relied upon to rebel against such brutal
tyranny and the abrogation of their rights as citizens.
The Three Methods of Dealing with Prostitution. The
following systems present themselves for our considera-
tion:
I. The System of Toleration laissezfaire or the "Let-
Alone System."
II. The System of Regulation, or the system of traffic
which demands the legal sacrifice of fresh young women
continually.
H. The System of Repression, which seeks to reduce
impurity to a minimum.
From these three systems our lawmakers have the priv-
ilege of selecting.
We must candidly own that the proper solution of this
problem is very difficult indeed, being surrounded with
obstacles which are all dependent on ignorance and mis-
conception ; and we crave pardon for expressing our firm
conviction that no individual is competent to pass judg-
ment who does not fully understand all the subject-matter
of this book, and even more. The expounding of the ques-
tion is properly the task of students who have enlightened
themselves on the science of sex-life; but on the other
hand, we are often grieved to see men with an equipment
of dangerous pseudo-science placed in positions of trust
and power.
Legislation cannot purify men's hearts nor make them
more virtuous ; but it can by corrupt laws rapidly develop
an enormous number of uncontrollable libertines whose
children will inherit their feelings and tendencies and
then what hope is there for our dear country ?
Society cannot be purified by devoting sections of cities
to the practice of immoralities which poison the sources
whence posterity is to come. This may hide from a portion
of the community the external signs of the fructification
220 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
of corruption, but it cannot prevent licentiousness from
growing and rankling, and extending diffusely.
Christianity cannot countenance such immoral laws ; for
it has elevated woman to a rightful social equality with
man, and has thus been the most powerful of all influences
in establishing a normal standard for the sexual relations.
Better the polygamy and the harems of the Mohammedans
than the devices of the modern God-defying anti-Christians
who are more than eighteen centuries behind the times.
It must be particularly noticed that, where the Regula-
tion System is in force, the law does not impose penalties
on the girls for the sin of being prostitutes far from it ;
but only if they refuse to comply with the demands of the
police for frequent and brutal examinations. If by chance
they escape disease, the law encourages them to continue
in their trade, and to expose themselves to the embraces
of unexamined men, an enormous number of whom are
diseased. Young girls can be decoyed and bought and
destroyed as easily, almost, as sheep ; and when the legal
stamp of infamy, and the "abiding seal of shame," is
affixed to them, they have not even the humane rights
which civilized communities accord to animals.
How can a chivalrous nation treat unfortunate women as
the mere instruments of man's pleasure? Why is it that
a nation should be so careful to throw safeguards around
the vicious men, and bait their appetites with healthy girls
whom it does not scruple to sacrifice to disease, infamy
and death? Why should the State leave the most impor-
tant fivefold aggressive majority unregulated?
It is partly because vicious legislators are given control,
and partly because of the apathy and indifference which
pure women show for the humiliation of their sex, and the
welcome which so-called good society holds out to liber-
tines.
The Anglo-Saxon race cannot understandingly tolerate
such gross injustice to the personal rights and liberties of
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 221
any one class as that of enslaving and outlawing them, and
at the Bame time legally employing them for the wanton
pleasure of its coarse men. Better than this is the " Let-
Alone System," which permits licentiousness to stalk with
bold face in our streets, soliciting in our parks and thor-
oughfares, and shocking our sense of decency by brazen-
faced display. Better to have assignation-houses and
brothels spring up sporadically than to establish by legal
sanction sections in the city which become the recognized
foci from which emanate fornication, adultery, disease,
drunkenness, divorce, illegitimacy and abortions manu-
factories for the corruption of our young men, schools for
the debasement of the sentiments of society, and will-o'-
the-wisps which by their lying lights betray and lure our
fellows to destruction.
Dr. Chanfleury, of Holland, who was for many years an
advocate of the Regulation System, and officially employed
in the work of supervision, reported his final conclusions
regarding the system to the last meeting of the " Continen-
tal Federation for the Suppression of State Regulation" as
follows :
" 1st. That it is absolutely impossible by any medical
supervision to guarantee the health of a woman leading a
life of vice.
2d. That any partial advantages of such supervision are
more than compensated by the increase of libertinism
engendered by a false sense of security, so that such super-
vision actually results in increased disease among men.
3d. That the attempt at supervision is demoralizing to
all engaged in it."
And the eminent French statesman, M. Jules Faure,
who expresses the verdict of experienced men in conti-
nental Europe, says :
" Governments have never looked the question of prosti-
tution fairly in the face ; but when interfering at all, have
almost invariably done so in order to elevate it into an
222 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
institution, by which means they have increased and given
permanence to the evil. Eegard for the public health is
their sole excuse. But even the worst that could befall
the public health is nothing to the corruption of morals
and national life engendered, propagated, and prolonged
by the system of official surveillance. It is utterly inex-
cusable, and an act of supreme folly, to give a legal sanc-
tion to the licentiousness of one sex and the enslavement
of the other."
In some of these countries illegitimacy is not considered
a great national calamity, for the enormous foundling
asylums supply boys for soldiers, and girls for work in the
various state institutions many of the girls sinking into
the brothels.
" It ought to arouse suspicion that this movement is sup-
ported by the brothel-keepers; but the association has
adopted a fair-sounding name, the Woman's Rescue League.
It proposes to appeal to the women of the country, appar-
ently in the interests of morality, and it professes to be
working only for the public health. Now, all these things
are deceptive ; and when it is considered that they are put
forward with the aid of persons who make a living out of
vice, you may be sure they are meant to be deceptive. I
have no doubt whatever but that many good people, many
good Christians, even, sincerely believe that the regulation
of vice is right and proper in the interests of good morals.
I am just as sure that if they really knew what regulated
vice is they would have none of it ; they would recognize it
for what Dr. Charles Bell Taylor, on the second reading of
a ' Bill for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, ' in
England, called it in the House of Commons, a ' despot-
ism so obscenely cruel, so hideously unjust, so unconstitu-
tional, that it is impossible to understand how any decent
race of men can consent to endure it, even for a day. ' It
is an interesting comment on a movement which asks the
decent men and women of Washington for regulation, to
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 223
read that while the English regulation rules were in force
in India, the Parsees of the country and the Buddhists of
China defied the Christian English to put the examinations
of women in force over their women ! "
The London Daily News of November 7th, 1896, says :
" Our Dunkirk correspondent writes : The police author-
ities here have been advised of the arrival, at an early date,
of a gang of evildoers, who, for some time past, have with
impunity been engaged in an infamous traffic. These
scoundrels, who, in reality, are purveyors for houses of low
character in New York, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio
de Janeiro, etc., operate in the usual manner. By means
of advertisements they entrap young girls into accepting
situations as governesses, nursery maids, domestic ser-
vants, etc. The sequel need hardly be stated. Their vic-
tims are conducted to places whose character can be easily
defined. Once in such a house, the poor girls are lost for-
ever. Fortunately, full information is now in the hands of
the authorities, and the band of unprincipled ruffians, who
have already worked so much mischief, will undoubtedly
be at no distant date brought to account."
In "unregulated" England such an infamous traffic is
not tolerated, while in "regulated" countries it is tacitly
countenanced by the police. In the latter countries the
governments have salaried spies, policemen, doctors and
commissioners ; and these men cannot prosper unless they
make work for themselves.
Do the wretched young women who live in these houses
get rich? Oh, no ! They are sold body and soul to the
brothel-keepers, and are in an abject bondage of slavery to
the police and to their mistresses. They have no more
chances of getting rich than the live-stock on a farm.
" The girls suffer so much that the shortness of their
miserable life is the only redeeming feature. Whether we
1 Prof. H. A. Kelley, loc. tit.
224 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
look at the wretchedness of the life itself; their perpetual
intoxication; the cruel treatment to which they are sub-
jected by their task-masters and mistresses or bullies ; the
hopelessness, suffering, and despair induced by their cir-
cumstances and surroundings ; the depths of misery, deg-
radation, and poverty to which they eventually descend;
or their treatment in sickness, their friendlessness and
loneliness in death, it must be admitted that a more dis-
mal lot seldom falls to the fate of a human being." 1
A distinguished Englishwoman, Mrs. Josephine E. But-
ler, one of the world's foremost workers for the cause of
fallen women, and President of the " British, Continental,
and General Federation for tho Abolition of State Kegu-
lated Prostitution," says:
" State prostitution is the most rapidly corrupting influ-
ence you can imagine. Pastor Durand said to me at
Liege, ' Tell your friends in England they do not under-
stand it. It is the greatest and most terrible hindrance
to the spread of the Gospel we have in our schools and
churches.' In Belgium there is a great moral revival.
When I was in Brussels I was speaking about this to the
Minister of Justice, and he said : ' We saw that our nation
would cease to be ; it was in an odious state of rottenness
in the midst of the nations. It was destroying the physi-
cal and mental and moral vitality of the people. We had
touched the bottom. ' '
If the license system were instituted here, there would
be an international traffic in women, and scores of out-
lawed women and prostitutes with hidden or chronic dis-
eases would flock to our shores to get registered, in order
to become mistresses of establishments, and would teach
new forms of vice to our men and harlots.
No vivid word-painter, no mint for the coinage of new
and poignant terms, could bring forth language which
would fully express the horror of our detestation of such
1 Booth, "In Darkest England," p. 71.
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 225
a fatal policy as legalized vice, promoted libertinism, and
encouraged procurement. Let lawmakers foresee the after-
math and comprehend the after-reckoning, and not think
that calamity can be averted by a fondling of or conces-
sion to such a monster !
The Repressive System, which aims to subdue and quell
this nefarious business, is the only method which appeals
to the true citizen. A righteous nation will not say that
its men must be impure in order to remain healthy and
virile ; for that is false physiology, and necessarily demands
the sacrifice of women, who every one grants should be
chaste.
A nation as well as an individual can commit a sin which
is beyond pardon, and its citizens can just as readily be-
come "sin's fools". in the aggregate as in the segregate.
Some apologists for prostitution profess to believe that
repression would be followed by outbreaks of violent licen-
tiousness, and they are in a measure correct. We do not
wish to take an extreme position, such as has been tried
heretofore, and do not urge measures which will attempt
immediately to legislate the community into morality for
that cannot be done.
On the other hand, the visible outbreaks of indecency
which are now and again apparent in every locality are
no more than symptoms of a diseased society ; and cer-
tainly we cannot hope to palliate the malady by recom-
mending more of the very poison which produced the
toxic effect. We must at least avoid adding fuel to the
flames.
With so many corrupt men and women in the commu-
nity of every large city, and with so many nervous " step-
children of Nature," it would be, we think, sheer madness
to close at once all the long-endured brothels, and that is
not what we mean by the Repressive System. What is
first necessary is the enlightenment of the public in the
correct physiological law that the principles of nature and
15
226 HEREDITY AND MOEALS.
of hygiene conform, and that one individual's health is
never dependent on another's damnation.
Even in the scheme of government of the universe we
are taught that there is a place without the gates of the
Holy City where there are reprobates of all kinds ; and
quite plainly, also, it is seemingly prudent to tolerate such
a vnet, for the immediate present, at least, in our large
cities. But the law should take the stand that such a sec-
tion is a hell-gate and a mischievous pest, and not the
abiding-place of Nature's God. And the law also should
at once take the stand that in this destructive business the
men should be amenable to the same punishments as the
women ; and that the gentler sex, the sex which bears chil-
dren, should not be portioned off as instruments for the
irresponsible lust of profligate men.
Alcoholic drinks should not be permitted to be sold in
brothels; minors of either sex and married men should
not be allowed there; the "age of consent" should be
raised to eighteen years ; soliciting on streets, whether by
men or women, should be a misdemeanor ; procurers should
be dealt with by the imposition of crushing punishments,
and in every possible manner the way to reform should be
made easy. If temptations be removed, the desires of the
men will be lessened, and unprotected women will not be
so liable to insult as they are in Continental cities where
morality is low. The commerce of procuring is reduced
to the lowest possible limits by this method; and only
those who are naturally vicious will resort to licentious-
ness. Unquestionably, thousands upon thousands would
refrain from immoral practices if a judicious repressive
system were in force. With the decrease in the number
of brothels would come a decrease also in the amount of
clandestine prostitution, as we may read from the experi-
ence of foreign cities. Fallen women, if they desired,
would have a chance to reform ; illegitimacy would be enor-
mously lessened, and crimes would diminish, for every
THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION. 227
policeman and every detective know that brothels are the
hot-beds of every evil machination.
Debauchery and disease would lessen, and we should
have fewer of those sexual perverts who resort to the low-
est degradation of infamy such as are common in vice-
infected haunts, and such as the inhabitants of Pompeii
practised. Pompeii, the pagan city whose vileness was
covered by "indignant Vesuvius," reads the traveller a
lesson on the depths of infamy to which a people who are
given up to libertinism will come. Over the doors of her
well-preserved brothels, in sight of the passers-by on the
streets, are the exaggerated genital organs of the male,
which seemed to be facile princeps in their estimation,
as in the mind of many a man to-day. On the walls
within these brothels there are yet to be seen frescoes, in
a wonderful state of preservation, illustrating every con-
ceivable perversion which any demon might invent. And
in the locked rooms in the museum at Naples, closed to
women, we have seen the obscene statues which point us
to that abyss of shame to which we too shall descend if we
trifle with, or encourage, or countenance impurity in our
sexual relations.
Kepressive measures inflict no hardship on any individ-
ual or class, while the license system and the tolerating
system do ; for where prostitution flourishes, the women's
interests are never considered as of anything like equal
importance to the men's. Any law liable to great abuse
or without equity should have no life in a republic.
Laws are meant to punish the vicious, to protect the weak,
to throw safeguards around minors and the unprotected,
to encourage right-doing, to honor the sanctity of mar-
riage ; and not to appoint any policeman, physician, or
other agent to degrade himself by the cowardly and un-
manly work of helping along a traffic whose object is to
sacrifice an untold number of young women to the basest
passions of a mob of coarse and diseased men.
228 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
All that we ask is that brave and humane men will
merely do their duty as they understand it reverencing
all women, and not consigning, by their influence or their
votes, thousands of them to the extremes t agony of shame
and the darkest abysm of degradation.
CHAPTER
CRIMINAL ABORTION.
"Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange and unnatural. "
Hamlet, Act. i., Sc. 5.
ILLEGITIMACY, or the alternative of Criminal Abortion, is
the goal to which the path of lust inevitably leads.
To be deprived of the endearing love of a parent, to be
born out of wedlock, a bastard, is the most unfair legacy
which can be bequeathed to a child; while abortion is
nothing but "murder most foul," a secret killing with pre-
meditated malice a proof that the " wages of sin is death. "
The generation of new individuals, i.e., the perpetuation
of the species is of course the result throughout all the
animate world when the male and female reproductive
elements of like species are brought together under favor-
able conditions ; and when a woman, in whom Nature lives
and upon whom life depends, plants the seeds of a thorn-
tree, she shall surety in the plucking of the fruit be pricked
till she bleeds, and it will then be too late to repent her of
having harbored the seed from which such fruit grows.
The unpitying consequences which follow upon the per-
verted abuse of Nature are visited by a dreadful reckoning,
not so much on the man, who plays a trifling part in re-
production, as upon the mother and the babe.
Illegitimate sexual pleasure is in no sense a trivial of-
fence; for in no possible way can sexual congress be in-
dulged in outside of wedlock without the participants either
committing the most immoral and despicable acts, or else
assuming the responsibilities of parentage.
230 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Bad in the beginning, the crime of venery is often ren-
dered worse by the shedding of blood; and any sophist
who defends the slaughtering of the innocent child, at any
period of its existence, is held in the deepest contempt by
every member of repute in the medical profession, and by
every one who is not so dull as to be deceived by impotent
conclusions. One must abhorrently spurn such a sacrifice
if he will but make the effort to inform himself in regard
to the wonderful truths of embryonic development which
the following pages attempt to explain clearty. Man is
not like the tree, which after the growth of hundreds of
years at last falls as a mere log ; but, as we believe, his
physical nature is inseparably correlated with the moral,
so that he hopes to ascend to a higher and a nobler life,
coming nearer and nearer to the throne of the Creator;
and while he is yet a dumb and unseen embryo, under-
going a secret growth, he is by degrees being shaped and
perfected for the hopes of the loftiest estate of any created
thing of which we have knowledge.
That this hope should be blighted, and that the precari-
ous life of the defenceless human being should be snapped
off by a violent expulsion from its natural place of lodg-
ment, is an outrage which disappointed Nature punishes
by calamities to the mother, both physical and moral, of
the most threatening kind. We rightly insist that our
bodies are temples of the living God; but must we not
fear that a blighted foetus is but a ruin of a few columns
whose evolution has been ruthlessly cursed by the trans-
gressions of its parents?
If the murderous, fatal hour come to it untimely, there
is registered in heaven a crime of the same magnitude as
if its death were brought about after its birth.
When some of us as children asked our nurses whence
we came and how we got here, they told us that "we
dropped down from the clouds."
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 231
That seemed wonderfully beautiful to rest content in
the belief that we had been gently deposited on this earth
from some bower in the deep blue vault of heaven ! But
when those of us who were so privileged came to the time
when we began the study of biology, including compara-
tive anatomy, botany and zoology, along with human anat-
omy and embryology, then our souls burned within us at
the new wonders of life ; and we have ever since continued
to wonder at and to admire the provisions of Nature for
the propagation of the species.
Modern microscopical appliances have rendered it pos-
sible for us to observe the marvellous evolution of a com-
plete and highly complicated organism from a single germ
of undifferentiated protoplasm; and proof of the cell-
theory plainly shows us that the growth of the earliest
embryo is precisely of the same nature as the growth of
the child and youth.
It is of paramount importance for the reader to under-
stand the significance of the sexual act, what the foetus is,
and the main facts in its development. The subject of
conception and f cetal development is one which would over-
whelm the average person were he left to consult the tech-
nical works on that subject; and yet the essential points
of this advanced branch of anatomy may be chronologi-
cally presented in a way quite intelligible to the careful
reader.
It will well repay one to devote some considerable atten-
tion to the following pages bearing on the nature of our
development; and while all may not be perfectly under-
stood upon the first reading, and while the terms, derived
from the Greek and Latin, may seem perplexing, yet the
essential points will clearly appear. These facts every
intelligent man should of course know.
Hermaphroditism. As pointed out heretofore, all sexual
animals primitively show the characteristics of both gen-
ders by actually possessing the male and female genital
232 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
glands, which ultimately assume, normally, the special
characters of one or the other sex.
A true hermaphrodite is an animal which has both an
ovary and a testis, i.e., the male and female genital glands;
and in it reproduction can take place without conjunction
with another animal of its own species.
There are some true hermaphroditic animals; such is
often the case among mollusks and worms. Thus the snail
has an ovotestis which has the functions of an ovary and of
a testicle, producing ova and spermatozoa ; and several va-
rieties of tape-worms, which infest the alimentary tracts of
man, the ox and the dog, are true hermaphrodites. Earth-
worms, though they copulate, are yet true hermaphrodites,
each impregnating the other during the act of conjunction.
Both the male and female germ-glands exist in these ani-
mals ; and other animals, again, are at one time female and
at another male. Thus in some of the Turbett&ria, or cili-
ated worms some of microscopic size, some several inches
in length the individual first attains to maturity as a
male, and later as a female, and during copulation among
these animals, one is practically a male and the other a
female, though later on the role may be reversed.
As anomalies among the vertebrate animals, including
man, there are authentic instances of one individual having
a testicle on one side and an ovary on the other, as well as
the other imperfectly developed sexual characteristics of
either sex. These monstrosities are however, spurious
hermaphrodites, being in reality of one sex or the other,
though imperfectly developed as to either.
The occasional union of the two sexes in the same human
individual is only apparent, and so-called human herma-
phrodites exhibit the psycho-sexual peculiarities of only
one sex. Psychically and functionally there is no human
hermaphroclitism. For our procreation, accordingly, it is
essential that there shall be a union, or "marriage," of the
male and female elements of generation provided by two
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 233
individuals of opposite sexes. The male element is called
the spermatozoon, or spermatozoid, and the female element
the ovum, or egg ; the special function of the former being
to fertilize, or impregnate, the latter, and from the conjunc-
tion of these male and female reproductive elements the
embryo is conceived, succeeding generations of descendent
cells being produced which ultimately bring it to full de-
velopment.
The Essential Male Reproductive Element. The semen
is a thick, starchy fluid, of a whitish color and peculiar
odor. The amount discharged at each ejaculation varies
from a quarter of a teaspoonful to two teaspoonfuls, and
it consists of the combined secretions of the testicles and
the accessory generative glands the prostate and Cowper's
glands, and the secretions of the seminal vesicles and vasa
deferentia. The fluid itself is merely a vehicle for the sper-
matozoids or essential male fertilizing elements. Impotent
men may discharge the normal amount of fluid, in which,
however, no spermatozoa exist.
In a single drop of semen there are countless thousands
of spermatozoa, only one of which is concerned in the im-
pregnation of the equivalent female reproductive element.
These microscopic sperm-cells give to the seminal fluid
its vital characteristic ; and millions are present in each
discharge, in order to insure the impregnating or ferti-
lizing of the ovum provided by the female.
Nature is everywhere lavish with the reproductive ele-
ments of the two sexes in order to insure fertilization, a
familiar example of which is to be observed in the clouds of
pollen the male fecundating element in flowering plants
which at certain seasons of the year are borne by the
breezes far and wide, the vast majority of the pollen-grains
of course never reaching the ovules, the female fertilizable
cells.
The male fertilizing elements enormously exceed in
number the female fertilizable elements, and in the human
234 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
race, with which we are here concerned, there are countless
thousands of male sperm-cells to one ovum ; for the female
supplies only one ovum at each menstrual period, except
in certain exceptional cases of twin- or triplet-births, when
two or three ova are supplied.
Each spermatozoid is an independent protoplasmic body,
or cell, which under the microscope looks remarkably like
a tadpole.
The length of each spermatozoid is from ^ to ^ of
(From Century Dictionary
under Spermatozoon. )
FIG. I. -4, Two spermatozoa show FIG. II. Spermatozoids, lower power
ing broad view magnified 600 diameters. of microscope.
P, profile view.
an inch. Each one of them is described as having a head,
an intermediate segment, and a tail.
Under the microscope the seminal fluid is seen to be
alive with these spermatozoa, which actively swim in it,
each individual element executing spontaneous and power-
ful vibratile or lashing movements, and collectively they
appear like "a shoal of microscopic fishes," each one seek-
ing to impregnate the ovum, if it be present, and any one
by chance or fate succeeding. The consummation of sexual
intercourse, impregnation, is ended when one of these
countless spermatozoids unites with an ovum. All the
acts of courtship, marriage and sexual intercourse are
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 235
subservient to this one microscopical phenomenon of the
"marriage" or fusion of the male and female elements
for Nature has then given origin to a positive entity be-
longing to a new individual.
The tail of each spermatozoid executes rapid undulatory
movements, which drive it forward head-first in opposition
to the force of gravity and the flow of the secretions in the
female ; and the late Dr. Marion Sims said that by virtue
of their own motion they would travel from the entrance of
the vagina to the womb in three hours.
In men who had been executed spermatozoids have been
found alive, seventy and even eighty-two hours after death ;
in the bull six days after it was killed ; in the oviducts of
bitches arid rabbits seven to eight days ; in the cow six days
after copulation; in the human female they were found
endowed with active movements in the cervical canal, by
Hausmann, seven days and a half, and by Perry eight
days after coition. In the female bat they retain their
fecundating power for many months, and in the queen bee
for more than three years. The spermatozoids of a frog
may be frozen four times in succession without killing
them. They will live for seventy days when placed in the
abdominal cavity of another frog."
The semen is the most highly vitalized fluid in the body
of the male ; and it is amazing to reflect that these inde-
pendently active cells, or spermatozoa, remain alive, as
cited above, for seventy or even eighty-two hours after
every other tissue in a man is dead !
But when they have been planted on favorable soil, such as
the warm, moist mucous membrane of the female genitalia,
they have been actually observed to retain their life and func-
tional activities for upward of eight days, and it is highly
probable that they remain active even longer than this.
The profound chemistry of Nature has elaborated no
other fluid which can compare in vitality and importance
1 Parvin, "Science and Art of Obstetrics," p. 108.
HEREDITY AND MORALS. ,
with the semen, the sole design of which secretion is for
procreation.
The spermatozoa are developed in the testicles two oval
glands, suspended in the loose scrotum by the spermatic
cords ; besides forming spermatozoa they also secrete some
of the other fluid elements of the semen. Each testicle
contains a great number of minute tubules the tubuli
seminiferi in which are epithelial cells, called spermato-
blasts, which undergo a series of changes and become con-
verted into spermatozoa. From each testicle the vas
deferens, or execretory duct, carries the secretions to two
pouches on the base of the bladder the vesiculce seminales
which serve as reservoirs for the semen, and also secrete a
fluid of thinner consistence, which is added to the secre-
tions from the testicles. These vesiculce seminales dis-
charge their contents periodically, or under stimulation,
into the urethra by means of the two ejaculatory ducts.
There are many men who entertain the erroneous idea that
a woman is barren for twenty days of every month ; but
when one thinks to select the time of intercourse with a
woman at a period when he supposes she cannot be im-
pregnated, he must remember that his spermatozoa stay
alive in her for more than a week. Practically there is no
time during a woman's sexual life when she may not be
impregnated. The conservation and proper expenditure
of this fluid, upon which the phenomena of life depends,
give to man his moral and physical force, while its squan-
dering and abuse in any way whatsoever outside of mar-
ried life is a perversion to be deeply ashamed of, and every
lusting man at least courts, if he does not actually acquire,
repulsive disease and moral degradation, and furthermore,
he makes himself exceedingly liable to be encumbered with
the moral obligations of paternity, from which the weak
excuse of " pater incertus" can hardly free him.
Physiology of Reproduction and Development in the Fe-
male. The most profound attribute of organized beings
CRIMINAL ABORTION . 237
is the distinction of sex the essential factor being the
generation of spermatozoa by the male and of ova by the
female.
Reproduction can occur only when the female element is
fertilized by the male element ; and this is of course effected
by the act of copulation, which, while being the normal
way, is by no means essential for authentic instances are
recorded where a virgin has been impregnated by using a
bathtub after a masturbator had defiled it, or after contact
with clothes or sheets which had been " wet" with semen. *
The essential point is that the male and female elements
must in some way meet within the mother's body, where
the " soil" is favorable for the growth of the germ-cell.
In most fishes the ova are impregnated externally to the
body of the mother. Thus the female "roe" or "spawn,"
of many fish e.g., the codfish contains many millions
of eggs which are " spawned" into the water and fecundated
by the "milt" or spermatic secretion of the male, without
the act of copulation, the meeting of the male and female
reproductive elements being left to chance. In the process
of fish-culture the spawn and the milt are artificially stripped
out of the female and male fish, and mixed together in a
specially constructed jar filled with water, when in the
course of time myriads of fish are hatched.
Among frogs the male embraces the female, and when the
latter discharges ova, the male ejects sperm on them.
So also, veterinarians, when they have difficulty in mat-
ing animals, sometimes inject semen with a syringe into
the female genitalia. A royal scion of France is reputed
to have owed his existence to the application of this device,
while times without number this procedure has been suc-
cessfully followed in women hitherto sterile. 9
A woman at each menstrual period experiences a sort of
1 For numerous allied cases, vide " Anomalies and Curiosities of
Medicine, " Gould and Pyle, pp. 40-45.
Vide Gould and Pyle, loc. eit. t p. 40 et seq.
238 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
" mimic labor," discharging a sanguineous fluid with which
she " lays a little egg" the ripe ovum.
" The menstrual and gravidital changes follow the same
cycle, and differ from one another essentially only in two
points: 1, the time occupied, and 2, the extent of the
changes. In fact the alterations, though of the same char-
acter, are greater in extent and occupy a longer period dur-
ing gestation than during menstruation. These considera-
tions force us to the conclusion that the gravid uterus is
passing through the menstrual cycle prolonged and intensi-
fied. The function of gestation is a direct modification of
the function of menstruation, and the two are physiologi-
cally homologous." '
If one of her ova be fertilized by a spermatozoid, there is
at once initiated in the woman a series of astonishingly
pronounced and rapid changes, which continue throughout
the whole period of gestation and lactation. Within the
short space of nine months, corresponding to the growth
of the embryo, there is an enormous increase in the size
and power of the uterus, so that it is both adapted to give
lodgement to a full-sized babe, and to expel it by tremendous
contractions through the " birth-passages" at the termina-
tion of pregnancy.
While performing the functions of gestation and suck-
ling, she normally ceases to menstruate, and all her pri-
mary and secondary sexual organs undergo marked changes,
while her heart and blood-vessels are rendered more
powerful, for the increased work which is demanded of
them.
The secretion of semen is largely controlled by the mental
condition of the male, and by his surroundings and habits ;
and he can perform the sexual act at one season as well as
another, or remain absolutely continent indefinitely with-
out impairing his procreative ability.
Most of the lower animals have a " rutting season, " or a
1 " Human Embryology, " Minot, p. 25.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 239
time of periodical sexual excitement, being without desire
at other times ; but man is entirely independent of this, and
maintains the power to found his family in accordance with
reason and prudence at any time during his sexual life.
But Nature has not ventured to subordinate the control
of the sexual functions of the woman to her will, and so
once every lunar month she involuntarily passes through a
series of remarkable transformations which are the expres-
sions of desire on the part of Nature that she shall perpet-
uate the species.
The female sexual apparatus consists primarily of the
organs of generation, and secondarily of the organs of lac-
tation the mammary glands or breasts.
The vagina is the sexual passage which extends upward
from the external genitals to the womb; it serves as the
organ of copulation and is the chief part of the " birth pas-
sage" during the delivery of the foetus.
The uterus, or womb, is a pear-shaped, hollow, muscular
organ, about three inches in length, communicating below
with the vagina by the cervical canal, and receiving the
openings of the two Fallopian tubes, at either side, in its
upper portion ; it is lined with a thick mucous membrane
which is shed at each menstrual period, and its cavity
serves as the resting-place in which the ovum, if impreg-
nated, is harbored and developed for a period of ten lunar
months two hundred and eighty days at the termina-
tion of which time it expels it as a full-time child.
The Fallopian tubes, or oviducts, are two muscular canals
which extend in a sinuous wavy manner from either side
of the uterus at its upper part, outward toward the ova-
ries. Each is from four to five inches in length, and they
are lined with a thick mucous membrane covered with
ciliated epithelial cells, which by their lashing movements
create a current toward the uterus. At their outer extremi-
ties they are provided with finger-like processes, oifimbrice,
whose function is to grasp the ovaries on either side at the
240 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
point from which the ripe ovum is about to escape, and
these tubes serve to transmit the ova to the uterus.
In spite of the current which is established by the ciliated
epithelium of the tubes toward the uterus, the spermatozoa,
by their independent vibratory motions, force themselves
contrary to it to the extreme limits of the Fallopian tubes,
where fertilization of the ovum takes place.
The ovaries are a pair of germ-glands situated in the pel-
vic cavity, one on either side, at the extremities of the
Fallopian tubes.
They are analogous to the testicles of the male, since
they develop the essential female reproductive element, or
ovum, which when impregnated by a spermatozoon, de-
velops into a foetus. (See "Female Genital Organs and
Appendages, Fig. XI., page 305.)
Each ovary is a flattened ovoid body about one and one-
half inches in length and one-half inch in thickness,
slightly varying in size at different times.
Each ovary contains upward of seventy thousand Graajmn
follicles, in each of which there is an ovum or egg-cell. The
ovaries of a child a year old contain as many Graafian
follicles with their contained ova as do those of the fully
developed woman ; but these ova do not begin to " ripen"
until puberty, and even then only a small minority of the
seventy thousand ever come to maturity. Each ovum rests
in a Graafian follicle, and as a rule but one of them ripens
monthly. As the Gmafian follicle with its enclosed ovum
develops, it moves to the surface of the ovary and produces
a protuberance, which finally ruptures and allows the ovum
to escape into the Fallopian tubes.
At each menstrual period, one and sometimes two or
three ova of mature size burst out from the ovary or ova-
ries, and, if unimpregnated by a spermatozoon, pass on
into the uterus and are lost in the menstrual discharges.
An ovum being discharged at each menstrual epoch, a wo-
man may consequently conceive at any time of her sexual
CRIMINAL, ABORTION. 241
life from puberty to the menopause, i.e., until the final
cessation of her menstruation. If two or three ova are dis-
charged, and each impregnated, she will bear twins or
triplets, though twins, curiously enough, are sometimes
developed from a single ovum.
This menstruation is a remarkable phenomenon, which
comes on in cycles, characterized not only by a periodical
flow of blood from the uterine cavity, but also by constitu-
tional disturbances ; there is a shedding of the superficial
layers of the mucous membrance of the uterus, and at each
of the epochs an ovum is discharged from one or other oi
the ovaries. It occurs in properly developed women, in
temperate climates, between the ages of fourteen and forty-
four years, sometimes normally beginning earlier or ending
later than these figures, and being observed earlier in warm
and later in cold climates. 1
Normally this phenomenon occurs thirteen times a year,
at intervals of a lunar month twenty -eight days and the
name is taken from the Latin word mensis, "a month."
During all the period of a woman's menstrual life the func^
tion of menstruation can, in health, be interrupted only by
pregnancy and suckling, so that it has been quaintly said
that " woman only escapes being sick twelve times a year by
having an illness pregnancy which lasts nine months."
The general public, in accordance with their usual erro-
neous opinions about physiological subjects, have an idea
that intercourse during the first week after a menstrual
period is liable to be followed by conception, but that at
other times there is no danger of it.
" Experience has shown, however, that there is no single
day in the intermenstrual period in which conception may
not occur. Jewish women indeed, who are forbidden
sexual intercourse by the Mosaic law during menstruation
and the seven days following, are proverbially fruitful." 8
1 Vide Hart and Harbour's "Gynaecology."
'Lusk, "Science and Art of Midwifery," p. 116.
16
242 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
After an intercourse ocouring just before a menstrual
period, one might suppose that the semen and the ovum
would be expelled when the flow began, but the spermatozoa
pass into the distal, or remote, extremities of the Fallopian
tubes within a few hours after intercourse, and the Fallo-
pian tubes not actively sharing in the phenomena of men-
struation these spermatozoids, which continue to possess
life for upward of eight to ten days, may be retained and
impregnate the ovum which is discharged at the menstrual
period immediately following.
The law of reproduction is so strongly impressed on all
animate Nature that when a healthy male and a healthy
female have sexual congress the chances of insemination are
very great indeed.
Conception and Development of the Foetus. By concep-
tion is meant the animation of the female reproductive ele-
ment by the male reproductive element so that an embryo
is formed.
The ovum represents one cell and the spermatozoid one
cell, and when they become fused in the process of concep-
tion there results one cell the impregnated ovum which
is now the germ of an embryo. " The earlier the stage the
fewer the cells, until we reach the condition when there are
but few cells, then two, and finally one only. This cell is
the impregnated ovum, the beginning of all development,
but is itself formed of two separate parts, very different in
their origin and constitution, namely, the egg-cell or ovum
and the spermatozoon, whose union is the act of impreg-
nation the beginning of a new existence."
Our lives, then, have their origin from two cells of in-
tensely vitalized protoplasm which unite to form a single
cell. The saying of Linnaeus, " Omnevivum ex ovo," is now
known to be true, for all animal life springs from a cell which
has all the true characteristics of an egg. The ova of all
animals higher in the scale of life than the protozoa, i.e.,
1 Minot, " Human Embryology, " p. 35.
CRIMINAL, ABORTION. 243
from the Porifera, or sponges, up through the animal
kingdom, including man, are scarcely distinguishable
from one another in their essential characteristics and
their structure, though varying much in size in the differ-
ent animals.
The ovum, like most cells, is usually of microscopic size,
though sometimes it is of enormous bulk, as in the bird-
tribe, ostrich's eggs averaging three pounds in weight, and
holding about three pints. An ostrich egg is an example
of one of the largest cells known to physiologists, but
morphologically it differs in no degree from the human
ovum. The largest known eggs are those of the gigantic
fossil bird of Madagascar, ^Epyornis maximus, being twelve
to fourteen inches in length, six times the bulk of an
ostrich's egg, and equivalent to twelve dozen hen's eggs.
And yet these eggs are single cells !
Other examples of enormous cells are the eggs of all
birds, of most fish, of some batrachians, and most reptiles.
In some animals the ovum is encased in a hard 5 chalky
egg-shell, while in others it is protected by a more or less
tough envelope.
But yet these ova are all morphologically similar; in
some of them there is an enormous adventitious addition
of the albuminous part, or " white" of the egg, which serves
to nourish the developing embryo, while the egg-shell is
merely a protective envelope of calcareous matter derived
during the passage of the ovum down the oviduct or Fallo-
pian tube of the bird.
A hen, like a woman, may " lay" an egg which is inca-
pable of developing an embryo, for this is only possible if
the ovum has been fertilized by a spermatozoon.
At each menstrual period, then, a woman discharges one
of these ova, or eggs, similar in every detail morphologi-
cally to the ova of all other metazoic animals, i.e., all animals
higher in the scale of life than the protozoa, from sponges
up and unless it is vivified by the male cell it is soon
244 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
discharged from her body, successive ova continually ripen-
ing, and continuously preparing themselves, as it were, for
a possible fecundation. All animals which have feminine
sex "lay" eggs, some being hatched outside the body,
oviparous ; some hatching within the mother's body with-
out having vascular connection with the parent, ovovivipa-
rous ; and others, viviparous, establishing a vital connection
within the mother by means of a placenta and umbilical
cord.
All mammals are viviparous with the single exception of
the curious OrnifJiorhynchus, or " duck-billed mole" of Aus-
tralia, which lays eggs like the birds and is oviparous.
Most eggs are spherical in shape, but some are cylin-
drical ; some are ovoid, as in birds ; while others are coni-
cal or elliptical.
With the exception of the anomalous OrnithorJiynchus, the
ova of mammals are exceedingly minute spherical cells ;
but it must be distinctly remembered that they are struc-
turally the same as all other eggs, the "white" and the
"egg-shell" of the latter being merely modifications of
homologous parts in the former which serve for the nutri-
tion and protection of the embryo.
The human ovum has thus been compared with the ova
of other metazoic animals, and especially to the ova of
birds, because of the familiar acquaintance with the latter,
and because they are structually identical.
The eggs of hens occasionally do not have this "egg-
pod," or "egg-shell"; nor do those of the turtle, nor the
"roe" of fish these being encased in tough, elastic "egg-
cases" ; and the human ovum also has a very elastic " egg-
case" which is called the zona pellucida.
To one unfamiliar with physiology the word "cell" is
almost meaningless, but for our present purpose some
knowledge of it is essential.
Not to be misleading, it must be pointed out that almost
all cells are invisible to the naked eye, and the enormous
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 245
eggs of birds, though single cells in every respect, are only
wonderful and exceptional examples of modification for a
particular design. The body of a man contains untold
millions of cells, all practically microscopic in size and
with a great divergence of function ; but in the beginning,
when the germ was conceived, his existence sprang from a
single nucleated cell.
The fundamental type of a cell is a minute mass of
granular protoplasm having a cell-wall which limits it, and
a nucleus and nucleolus,
though the cell-walls and
nuclei are not essential con- c -/--/ssAssgr -^*w^:*\ \ Q
/ /kb&M fe\^' : -.'--:A.-.V-D
stituents of all cells.
Cells are modified in va- [ J_A
rious ways to perform the
different functions of nutri-
tion, sensation, automatic
and spontaneous motion,
' FIG. III. Human ovum, magnified 360
and reproduction, each Cell diameters. Represents a typical cell. A,
being an independent organ- ^ ran " lar Ptopiasm (viteuus or yo ik);
& G .B, cell-wall or zona pellucida; C, nucleus
ism which enters into the with nucleolus, called also germinal ves-
formation of tissue by asso- l^omy T^ SPOt ' (Fr m
ciation with other cells.
Thus we have bone-cells, blood-cells, lymph-cells, fat-cells,
cartilage-cells, muscle-cells, nerve-cells, mucus-cells, etc.,
and in addition to these the cells which are concerned in
reproduction, e.g., the ova and spermatozoa.
Structurally or morphologically, the ovum is similar to
other cells ; but physiologically it is vastly different, since
it is capable, if impregnated, of developing an organism
which is the counterpart of the parent.
From this semi-fluid, almost homogeneous cell which
constitutes the ovum there are developed all the myriads of
cells of the body. The higher we ascend in the scale of life
the smaller the ova become, until in the human female this
minute " egg," or ovum, measures only ^ in. in diameter.
246 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The ovum discharged at each menstrual period, being
incapable of locomotion like that of the spermatozoa, is
directed by the Fallopian tube, on the side corresponding
to the ovary from which it came, into the uterus.
Thefimbrice, or finger-like processes of the Fallopian tube,
grasp the ovary at the point where the rupture of the ovi-
sac, or Graafian follicle, is about to occur, and when the
ovum is received into one of the tubes it is passed along
toward the uterus, partly by the current established by
the ciliated epithelium lining the tube, and partly by the
peristaltic movements of the ducts on either side.
The ovum is probably almost always impregnated by a
spermatozoid not in the uterus, but in the distal, or outer
part of one of the Fallopian tubes, one-third to one-half
way down from the fimbriated extremity to the uterus, it
being remembered that the spermatozoa reach these parts
of the Fallopian tubes by their own independent active
movements.
In the ovum discharged once in every lunar month
certain important changes occur independently of impreg-
nation, so that each ripe ovum is prepared to meet a sper-
matozoid whether the latter be there or not.
The germinal vesicle moves to the surface of the ovum,
disappears from view, and in its place two polar globules
appear, while a portion of the original germinal vesicle
moves back toward the centre of the ovum to form the
female pronucleus. The object of the polar, or directing
globules, is to facilitate the entrance of a spermatozoid,
while the female pronucleus is an indication that the ovum
is ready for impregnation.
The female pronucleus is thus seen to be a part of the
original germinal vesicle, and it is now adapted to blend
itself with the head of a spermatozoid, which, if it should
happen to fuse with the ovum, buries its head and inter-
mediate segment in the yolk substance so as to constitute
the germ of an embryo.
CRIMINAL, ABORTION. 247
Especially bear in mind that these changes, which result
in the formation of the female pronucleus, occur in the ovum,
whether it be impregnated or not.
If unimpregnated it passes off with the menstrual dis-
charges; but if fertilized it plants itself on the mucous
membrane of the uterus to develop myriads of cells, which
become differentiated and specialized in the fabric of a
human being.
Out of the tens of thousands of spermatozoa which may
have found their way up to the distal extremities of the
Fallopian tubes, only one is concerned in the process of
fecundation, the other less fortunate ones becoming no
more than refuse. All have been trying, as it were, to
force their heads through the egg-pod, or zona pellucida,
of the ovum, but only the one succeeds.
The fecundating part of each spermatozoid is its head
and intermediate segment, the tail being designed solely
as a locomotor apparatus to propel it to its destination and
enable it to penetrate the walls of the ovum. 1 This zona
pettucida of the ovum which the spermatozoon is required
to penetrate is analogous to the thin white " skin" envelop-
ing a hen's egg, which is readily seen by cracking off the
shell from a hard-boiled egg, but, of course, in the human
ovum it is much more delicate.
The ripe ovum having prepared itself for impregnation
by the formation of the female pronucleus and the polar or
directing globule, the head of the favored spermatozoid here
finds a spot in the cell wall of the ovum which has been
thinned out and weakened, and thus it is forced within by
the lashing movements of its tail.
This conical projection of the ovum, the polar or directing
globule, after the head and intermediate segment of the sper-
matozoon have entered, contracts and cuts off the latter's
tail, which, having performed its function, is now useless.
1 Some embryologists maintain that only the head of the spermato-
zoon is the fecundating part.
248
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The head and intermediate segment of the spermatozoid,
being now buried in the yolk of the ovum, become sur-
rounded with a radiate formation of the granular proto-
plasm, which appears like a star, and their metamorphosis
results in what is called the male pronucleus, which fuses
with the female pronucleus, and the two together form the
new nucleus of the fertilized ovum, in which are initiated
all the activities which finally result in the development of
FIG. IV.
FIG. V.
"SMALL, PORTIONS OF THE OVUM OP ASTERIAS GLACTALIS." FIG. IV., a promi-
nence is seen rising from the surface of the ovum toward the nearest spermato-
zoon. FIG. V., the prominence and spermatozoon have met. (From Balfour's
"Comparative Embryology, " p. 65.)
a human being. This impregnated ovum, though yet a
single cell, is entirely different from the simple ovum.
Now a new human life has sprung into existence, and
this impregnated ovum is the starting-point in each indi-
vidual's life history.
Such work seems to be indicative of superhuman power
indeed, but we do not call it a miracle simply because it
violates none of Nature's laws, and is so frequently re-
peated; and yet from its infinitude of repetition through-
out Nature, these wonderful manifestations would seem to
proclaim that there is a Creator in the Universe far more
convincingly than if the phenomena had only been observed
once and labelled a "miracle,"
CRIMINAL ABORTION.
249
This single cell has, within the short space of a few
hours, become an exceedingly interesting new human in-
dividual ; and we must insist that if a man will take the
pains to inform himself on the rudiments of embryology,
he cannot run the risk of allowing any of his spermatozoids
to meet within an ovum of any woman but his wife, unless
he is either an abandoned man or a fool; for after the
semen has left him, he no longer has the slightest control
over a single one of the myriads of reproductive elements,
all of which are independently and automatically striving
to their utmost to fertilize
the ovum, which has in-
dependently done every-
thing in its power to
prepare itself for the ad-
mission of the head of
a sperm atozoid into its
yolk - substance, and to
fuse with it.
The earliest beginning
of life, then, is the im-
pregnated ovum, or germ-
cell, which has the mor-
phological value of a
single cell, and is endowed
with the capacity to ger-
minate into the next stage, which embryologists designate
the embryo-stage.
The definitions of germ, embryo, and fcetus are purely
arbitrary, the new individual being called a germ until the
rudimentary characteristics appear; then within a short
space of time it is called an embryo, and retains this name
for the first three months of gestation, or until the placen-
tal circulation is established ; then after the formation of
the placenta, from the end of the third month to the close
of pregnancy, it is called & foetus; then when it is born and
FIG. VI. "Ovum of Asterias Glacialis,
with male and female prouucleus and a ra-
dial striation of the protoplasm around the
former." (From Balfour^s " Comparative
Embryology," p. 66.)
250 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
separated from intimate connection with its mother it is
called a babe ; then while it is dependent on its mother for
nourishment, and while it occasionally attaches itself to her
breasts, it is called an infant; and subsequently it receives
the different titles of child, pubescent, adolescent and adult,
until finally it becomes a neuter, to all intents and purposes,
with the advance of senile decay. It is, of course, the
same individual throughout all this course.
The reader must not be misled by the scientific phrase-
ology into thinking that the newly created being is any-
thing but human ; for this nomenclature has been adopted
merely for convenience of description, and is just as arti-
ficial as the divisions into which its later life is marked
off. Nature has no such lines of demarcation.
The ovum having become a germ-cell as described, its
yolk or vitelline substance contracts around the newly formed
nucleus which resulted from the blending of the male and
female pronuclei, and then the yolk and this new nucleus
spontaneously divide into two nucleated spheres, which are
simply two new cells, each with a new nucleus, which have
been formed by the splitting of the original cell into two
halves.
Each of these two new cells subdivides into two other
cells ; these newly formed cells again subdivide in the same
manner, each being the parent, as it were, of a new nu-
cleated cell, and so they continue to subdivide in a geo-
metrical ratio of progression forming 4, 8, 16, 32, and so
on. This process is called cleavage, or fission, or segmenta-
tion of the cells.
In this manner of geometrical increase, rapid multiplica-
tion of cells is attained, and the growing child owes its
evolution into adult life by the same process of fissiparous
division of cells.
This process called cleavage of the yolk is continued
until the whole of the yolk is subdivided into numerous
small nucleated cells which form an agglomeration within
CRIMINAL ABORTION.
251
the zona pellucida looking like a mulberry, from whence it
is called the morula stage.
While this morula is developing within the ovum, the
latter is at the same time increasing in size by the absorp-
tion of albuminous fluid which coats it during its descent
along the Fallopian tube.
FIG. VII.
Fio. IX.
FIG. X.
FIRST STAGES IN SEGMENTATION OF A RABBIT'S OVUM. Fig. VII., Ovum has split
into two cells. Fig. VIII., Four-cell stage. Fig. IX., Eight-cell stage. Fig. X.,
The morula stage.
The cells of the morula, from mutual pressure, become
eventually so arranged as to form an envelope, or bladder,
which is closely applied all around to the vitelline mem-
brane (zona pellucida). This arrangement of the cells
which shows the first indications of coherent tissue is
called the blastoderm.
The blastoderm is the first step in the development of the
ovum after segmentation of the yolk-substance (vitellus),
252 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and it gives rise to two germinal layers of cells, the epi-
blast and hypoblast, between which there soon develops a
third layer of cells, the mesoblast, and from these three
germinal layers of cells all the structures of the mature adult
are formed. l
There appears at one part of the epiblast the earliest
trace which is at all characteristic of form ; this is called
the primitive streak or groove, in close relationship with
which the central nervous system, or cerebro-spinal axis, is
developed.
While this is going on, blood-vessels are formed within
the mesoblast which become distributed over the blasto-
derm.
Eight to ten days are supposed to have elapsed since
the ovum was fecundated; it is now about the size of a
pea ; the first characteristic human shape, the neural canal,
has appeared ; it is still in the Fallopian tube, where it was
fertilized, but presently passes into the uterus, where it finds
lodgement for the remainder of the gestation period.
While these early changes have been taking place in the
ovum, and while it is yet in the Fallopian tube, certain pre-
paratory changes also occur in the uterus, the mucous
membrane of which, through a sympathetic reflex trophic
influence, becomes swollen and thrown into folds, so that
when the eight- or ten-day-old ovum reaches the uterine
cavity it is stopped in its descent by becoming lodged in one
of these folds.
The ovum, now resting in a cup-like cavity on the sur-
face of the uterine mucous membrane, and being endowed
with a wonderfully energetic vitality, seems to exert a
peculiar irritative influence upon the area immediately sur-
rounding it, so that the edges of this cup-like cavity grow
differentiation and specialization of these cells into the
various organs and tissues of the body is exceedingly intricate, and
cannot be explained here, and for such enlightenment the reader is
referred to the special works on embryology.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 253
up around it and finally meet so as to include and retain it.
Thus is formed what is called the decidua reflexa (turned-
back decidua). In addition to this there is a layer of
membrane formed, closely applied to the uterine cavity,
which is called the decidua vera (true decidua), and of this
that portion which lies immediately adjacent to the fecun-
dated ovum becomes specially modified to form the decidua
serotina, at which site the future placenta is developed.
Thus there is a threefold division of the deciduous mem-
branes called deciduous from the fact that they are dis-
charged at the time of birth.
These deciduous membranes, developed from the uterine
mucous membrane, and so of maternal origin, form an ex-
ternal investment for the ovum, while within these are
formed yet other membranes of embryonic origin, consti-
tuting the foetal parts of the embryonic sac.
While these changes are going on in the formation of the
membranes the embryo itself continues to grow.
The embryo at this very early period, i.e., after the for-
mation of the neural canal, possesses a thickened anterior
extremity, the head or cephalic end t and a caudal extremity
or tail. From these extremities hollow pouches develop,
which finally meet and coalesce to form a single shut sac
inclosing the embryo. Thus is formed what is called the
amnion. This amniotic sac contains a bland, serous fluid,
the liquor amnii, in which the embryo floats ; eventually
this sac fills the entire uterine cavity, being closely ap-
plied to the inner surface of the deciduous membranes, and
constitutes one of the membranes composing the " bag of
waters," which ruptures when labor comes on. Sometimes
during birth a portion of the amnion adheres to the child's
head as a skull-cap, which event is regarded as an auspi-
cious omen by superstitious midwives, who then say that
the child was "born with a caul."
The allantois is a membranous pouch which springs
from the embryo and ultimately envelops it, so that the
254 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
embryo is completely invested by allantois as well as by
amnion and deciduous membranes.
Part of the allantois becomes the urinary bladder, part
of it forms the umbilical cord, and part of it enters into the
formation of the placenta by its union with the chorion.
The cJiorion is the outermost layer of the foetal envelope
and is of later development; it is formed by the allantois
fusing with the external layer of the amnion, and these
in turn become amalgamated with the vitelline membrane
to form a new membrane, which receives the name of
" cJiorion."
The chorion then becomes covered externally with a
multiplicity of little vascular tufts which give it a shaggy
appearance. These little tufts, called chorionic villi, con-
sist essentially of minute arterioles and veinlets, held
together by connective tissues. These villi are concerned in
the early nutrition of the fcetus. They eventually disap-
pear from two-thirds of the surface of the chorion, leaving
this part smooth, and the remaining one-third remains
shaggy with the vascular tufts, and forms the foetal part of
the placenta.
Just here it will be well to remind the reader that the
term ovum is used in various senses. In the preceding
pages we applied it to the female reproductive element, or
immature ovum ; to the impregnated ovum or oosperm ; and
to the various later stages of development. We started by
calling it a single cell, and later on described it as consisting
of myriads of cells. This seems strange indeed, but the
reason is to be found in the fact that all the developmental
changes of the embryo and of the foetal membranes, take
place entirely within the original cell-wall, or vitelline
membrane, which of course becomes enormously distended
by the wonderful changes which occur within it.
With this use of the term ovum, a woman who has arrived
at the end of the pregnancy, and who has a full-time child
within her uterus, is yet spoken of as carrying an entire
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 255
ovum, the foetus, of course, constituting by far the most im-
portant part of the ovum.
Furthermore we must acknowledge that the foregoing
changes have never all been observed in the human embryo,
but that we derive our information from a study of com-
parative embryology, concluding by a justifiable inference
that the processes exactly describe the early conditions
found in man. "The embryos of a man, dog, seal, bat,
reptile, etc., can at first hardly be distinguished from each
other." 1
Among animals the exact date of coitus can be readily
fixed, and at any subsequent day the female can be killed
for the purpose of studying the development of the embryo.
Obviously it is impossible to observe these changes in a
woman except by an occasioDal accident.
No human ovum has ever been seen and described during
the first week of embryonic development, and very few as
early as the third week.
Reichert's ovum is one of the earliest ones to have been
described. It was taken from the womb of a woman who
committed suicide, as supposed, thirteen days after im-
pregnation.
The placenta, or " after-birth, " is the organ of circulation,
nutrition, excretion and respiration of the foetus, and the
structure by which the foetus is attached to the wall of the
uterus by means of the umbilical cord, or "navel-string."
It begins to be formed about the end of the second month
of gestation, but is not fully developed until the end of the
third month. At full-time birth its long diameter is six to
eight inches, while its greatest thickness is from two-thirds
to one inch ; its weight is about twenty ounces, and, rough-
ly speaking, it is about the size of a soup-plate.
It is partly foetal and partly maternal in origin, and ex-
ceedingly vascular. The maternal and foetal bood-vessels
come into the closest possible relationship to each other,
1 Darwin, "Descent of Man," i., 31.
256 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
only the thinnest membranous septum separating them.
But the maternal- and foetal bloods never mix, there being
no direct communication between the two circulations, and
yet by diffusion, or osmosis, there is an interchange of
nutritive elements and gases, constituting nutrition and
the equivalent of respiration. The umbilical cord, or navel-
string, connects the foetus and placenta; it contains two
arteries and one vein ; through it the foetus derives its nour-
ishment from the placenta, and also gets rid of its waste
products.
The placenta, navel-string, and foetal and maternal mem-
branes together constitute what is called the "after-birth,"
or "secundines," which are "born" usually about twenty
minutes after the birth of the child.
The Growth and Development of the Human Foetus. The
ovum having been impregnated, the phenomenon of seg-
mentation follows until a morula is formed. Then, probably
on the thirteenth or fourteenth day, there is the appearance
of the medullary groove and ceplwdic expansion, which give
the earliest indications of the embryonal form. The
neural or spinal canal having been formed, there develops
in it a rod of nerve tissue, the anterior extremity of which
enlarges to form the brain. Thus the nervous system is
among the first of the structures of the body to be formed.
By the end of the second week the primitive heart appears
in the form of a tubular cavity, when the embryo is only
one-eighteenth of an inch in length.
At the end of the second week, or beginning of the third
week, the heart is actively beating, and at the end of a month
the four chambers of the heart have formed. 1
The brain- vesicles can now be seen, and the rudiments
of the eyes and ears are differentiated. As early as the
twenty-first day the limbs begin to appear, as well as the
elements of the eyes, nose and mouth.
During ike fourth week the growth of the embryo is more
1 By " month" is here meant a lunar month of twenty-eight days.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 257
active in regard to its changes of form and feature than at
any other time. It now changes its attitude, so that from
being erect it becomes strongly flexed until the cephalic
and caudal extremities meet or even actually overlap. At
the end of the fourth week the whole " ovum" is about the
size of a pigeon's egg, the heart has increased in size and
power, the rudiments of the limbs are prominent, the
primitive intestine is well formed, and the vertebrae and
nerve centres are distinct.
In the second month the eyes are distinctly seen, the ex-
ternal ear has appeared, and the kidneys are formed. As
early as the fifth or sixth week the nose and mouth are
formed, and the fingers and toes can be seen. In the second
month, also, the external sexual organs are formed, though
it is not yet possible to determine the sex, for male and
female are apparently identical in their early development.
At the end of this month the ovum is about the size of a
hen's egg, and the contained embryo from one inch to one
and a half inches in length.
At three montJis the embryo is about three and a half
inches long in its curved position.
The eyes, ears, fingers, and sexual organs are well formed,
and the sex can now be determined. At the end of the third
month the placenta is well formed. The foetus is now
markedly human, though the head preponderates in
size.
At the fourth month the foetus is pretty generally covered
with downy hairs; the eyes, nostrils and lips are closed;
it can move its limbs freely, and is quite human in appear-
ance. The external sexual organs are well defined.
At the end of four and a half to Jive months a skilled ear
can hear the sounds of the foetal heart through the ab-
dominal walls of the mother, and in specially favorable
cases, if the woman's abdominal walls be not too fat, if
the room be quiet, and if the listener be skilled in auscul-
tation, it can be heard somewhat earlier. At the close of
n
258 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the fourth month the mother can usually distinctly feel the
active movements of the foetus "quickening."
The heart-sounds of the fcetus give absolutely positive
signs of pregnancy. The younger the fcetus the more
rapid they are, and even at birth the child's heart-beats
are about twice as frequent as the mother's.
A fcetus born at Jive montJis breathes, cries faintly, but
dies at the end of a few hours.
At six months the fcetus is a little more than a foot in
length and weighs in the neighborhood of two pounds.
It may live for from a day to two weeks, and, if kept in an
incubator, may possibly survive. At the end of seven
months the child is viable capable of surviving though
infants born at this time usually succumb. The popular
idea that a " seven months' child" is more likely to live
than one born at the eighth month is erroneous and unrea-
sonable.
At -the end of the eighth month the fcetus is about sixteen
inches in length and weighs about five pounds.
At the end of nine months the fcetus measures nineteen
and a half to twenty -two inches in length, and averages six
or seven pounds. A child born at nine months is less
energetic than at full term, sleeps the greater part of the
time, and is less apt to survive. At the end of pregnancy,
i.e., ten lunar months two hundred and eighty days the
average length of the child is from twenty to twenty -two
inches, and its average weight is from six to eight pounds.
Its body is plump and well rounded ; the nails on the fingers
and toes are hard, and the finger-nails project beyond the
tips of the fingers ; the hair on the head is about half an
inch in length ; the child cries lustily on being born, and
makes active efforts at sucking any object placed between
its lips.
It is certainly quite evident that the individual has life,
and therefore the rights of a separate being, from the mo-
ment of conception, and that the earliest part of that life
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 259
is, if anything, fuller of developmental incidents and
changes than any of the later periods of existence. Float-
ing in a membraneous sac filled with amniotic fluid, the
minute embryo assumes constantly varying positions and
executes movements which, of course, are too delicate to
be perceived by the mother, until at about four and a half
months it is powerful enough to " leap within its mother's
womb" and make its presence felt. This is called " quick-
ening."
Some would seek to maintain that the soul does not enter
the foetus until this "quickening" has been felt by the
mother, and these are the kind of people who would argue
as to how many angels could balance themselves on the
point of a needle.
The soul, being an unsubstantial entity, is, of course, in-
capable of demonstration, but if we have faith to believe that
mortal man has such a gift, we cannot in reason assume
the task of defining when it has entered into the body.
We do know that the responsibility of giving birth to life
is equally as great as the taking of life, and that if the
foetus were left to fulfil its normal destiny it would have the
chance to round out a useful career ; and it is not for us to
say whether it shall be destroyed any more than if it were
a few stages further advanced in life.
The mass of people of course never see human beings
except during their air-breathing existence, and they look
upon illustrations of the early embryo as being hideously
ugly and repulsive, not stopping to realize that each one of
us has passed through similar stages, and that, after all,
the gradations are hardly more marked than those occur-
ring between infancy and senility.
Friends who knew us as children pass us by unrecog-
nized when we have added years to our bodies, and graded
changes are the rule throughout the cycle of life. Under
the microscope the early embryo is just as beautiful, so
physiologists think, and shows as much, or even more,
260 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
vitality in its young tissues than when it has reached the
maturer stages of development.
It is a misconception to assume that the spark of life in
the embryo is precarious and easily quenched. On the
contrary it seems that the younger it is the more tenacious
is it of life.
Even such crude biologists as butchers and fishmongers
have daily evidence that some fishes, e.g., shad, will live for
upward of thirty-six hours after being removed from their
element, and it is well known that turtles will live for more
than a day with their heads cut off ; so also will snakes and
some others of the cold-blooded animals reptiles and
amphibians.
In our early development we pass through forms very
similar to those of these animals, and the writer has re-
peatedly seen evidences of life in foetuses, born before they
could respire, for some considerable time after their expul-
sion. Thus, for instance, in one foetus, born during an ac-
cidental abortion between the third and fourth month, life
was observed in a most striking manner. After the mother
had given birth to it in the hospital, the nurse placed it in
a jar of water, where it remained immersed for more than
two hours. Not realizing that there was life in it, it was
pinned to a board for the purposes of dissection in order
to study the foetal circulation. Upon laying open its thorax
and abdomen the operators were astonished to see violent
respiratory efforts, through the lungs were incapable of
expansion at this early date.
It being recognized that the foetus was at a non-viable age,
and that it was insensitive to pain, the dissection continued,
until finally the pericardium was laid open and the beautiful
physiological demonstration of a beating human heart was
afforded. The auricles and ventricles were then laid open,
showing the mechanism of the action of the valves of the
heart, and even then the contractions did not cease for
almost two hours.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 261
At the risk of the reader misunderstanding how one could
make such a dissection on a human being, it is, neverthe-
less, here mentioned as a valuable example of the wonder-
ful pertinacity of life, a point of the utmost importance.
We believe that what we call " life" was not present dur-
ing this observation, but that the muscles merely retained
their contractility, as do those of the frog after they have
been separated from all connection with the brain.
It is a complete demonstration, however, that the early
foetus possesses a remarkable vitality, comparable to that
commonly observed in the cold-blooded animals, and the
writer gives the assurance that it is an exceedingly difficult
thing quickly to kill an early embryo; and furthermore,
he believes that the younger the embryo the more tena-
cious of life it is ; and that an embryo born even at the
first or second month will continue to live, even under very
unfavorable circumstances, for several hours, while others
may survive, even though maimed by unsuccessful attempts
at criminal abortion, and be subsequently born deformed. 1
Thus we see most plainly that life is present with won-
derful activity, and with progressive evolutionary advances,
and not stopping to discuss the trivial question when the soul
meets the body, we are now in a position to proceed intel-
ligently to the subject of criminal abortion. 2
Definitions. The definitions of the term "abortion" vary
somewhat in different countries, and are not used in the
same sense by the medical and legal professions, nor yet
by all doctors or all lawyers. By many doctors the term
" abortion" is confined to the expulsion of the contents of
1 Vide p. 286.
3 The reader who has become interested in embryology, and who
wishes to gain more profound information, is referred to the works
of standard authority which have been studied by the writer. A few
of these specially to be commended are : " Human Embryology, " by
Charles Sedgwick Minot, of Harvard University ; Lusk's, Playfair's,
Parvin's, and King's text-books on obstetrics, and Gray's "Anat-
omy," Landois and Sterling's "Physiology."
262 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the womb during the first three months of gestation i.e.,
before the placenta has fully formed ; " miscarriage" is the
term employed from the third month to the end of the sixth
or seventh month, when the child is supposed to be viable ;
and " premature labor" is said to occur at any time after
the child is viable to the end of the full-time pregnancy.
Artificial divisions of time for defining abortion are used
only for convenience ; but all these are not without great
imperfections, for Nature has no fixed rules of time and
is not confined to hard lines of demarcation. It is no less
difficult than to define " where lamb ends and mutton be-
gins."
A child may or may not be viable before the expiration
of seven months, and instances have been recorded where a
child born considerably before the sixth month survived.
Bouvier's " Law Dictionary" defines abortion to be the
" expulsion of the foetus at a period of utero-gestation so
early that it has not acquired the power of sustaining an
independent life." Storer defines abortion to be "the vio-
lent and premature expulsion of the product of conception,
independent of its age, viability, and normal function." '
The " Century Dictionary " says that the distinction
between the terms abortion and miscarriage is somewhat use-
less, and that " criminal abortion is premeditated or inten-
tional abortion procured, at any period of pregnancy, by
artificial means, and solely for the purpose of preventing
the birth of a living child fceticide. At common law the
criminality depended on the abortion being caused after
quickening. Some modern statutes provide otherwise."
The law requires that the procuring of abortion, in order
to be criminal, must be ivitli felonious intent, for it may be
necessary as a therapeutic measure. Again, abortion has
been legally defined thus : " Any person who does any act
calculated to prevent a child from being born alive is guilty
of abortion. The intention constitutes the crime, not the
'R. H. Storer, M.D., "Why Not?"
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 263
means employed. The drugs may even be harmless."
Usually in law, the term abortion is applied to delivery at
any time before the viability of the child, but it should be
extended to the expulsion of the foetus at any time before
the full period of gestation is completed. Bouvier's " Law
Dictionary" again says:
" In this country [the United States] it has been held
that it is not an indictable offence, at common law, to
administer a drug or perform an operation upon a preg-
nant woman with her consent, with the intention and for
the purpose of causing an abortion and premature birth of
the foetus of which she is pregnant, by means of which an
abortion is in fact caused, unless at the time of the admin-
istration of such drug or the performance of such an opera-
tion such woman was ' quick ' with child."
Or, in plain language, it says that abortion is not an
indictable offence unless the woman be " quick" with child.
The English law makes no distinction between a woman
"quick" or "not quick," with child. Therein it is better,
as will presently appear. '
" Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to pro-
cure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to
herself any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlaw-
fully use any instrument, or other means whatsoever, with
the like intent ; and whosoever, with intent to procure the
miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with
child, shall unlawfully administer to her, or cause to be
taken by her, any poison or other noxious thing, or shall
unlawfully use any instrument, or other means whatsoever,
with the like intent, shall be guilty of felony, and being
convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the
court, to be kept in penal servitude for life, or for any term
not less than five years, or to be imprisoned for any term
not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and
with or without solitary confinement."
1 Statutes 24 and 25 Viet., c. 100, s 58.
264 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
In an editorial appearing in a prominent medical journal
the punishments accorded to the crime in the various coun-
tries of the civilized world are thus summed up.
" In England and Ireland the punishment is penal ser-
vitude for life, or a less term. Should the mother die, the
crime becomes murder, which may be punished by death.
In Scotland (says The Lancet], the punishment is arbi-
trary; in France, Spain, the German Empire, Austria,
Hungary, Italy, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark
in short, throughout the whole of Europe the crime is
punished with imprisonment for from six months to twenty
years, or for life. In Sweden the penalty is death if the
mother dies; and in Eussia the mother, if a consenting
party, may be exiled to Siberia; in the Dominion of Can-
ada the penalty is imprisonment for life ; in Nova Scotia,
Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and in Prince Edward
Island it varies from imprisonment for two years to for
life ; in New Brunswick the penalty is death ; in Australia
and New Zealand the punishment is very severe, ranging
from two years' imprisonment to penal servitude for life;
in the United States it is punished with fines ranging from
$100 to $5,000, with imprisonment for long periods, and
with death." 1
Significance of the Term "Quickening." In the United
States many of the States still lay stress in their statutory
laws on the objectionable term "quick," though this dis-
astrous word has been intelligently stricken out from the
laws of many of our commonwealths, and it will doubtless
soon be universally recognized by the legal profession that
this requirement of " quickening" is of no moment whatever
in fixing the degree of the crime of procuring abortion.
Had the popular views regarding "quickening" and
embryology been correct,, it is certain that millions of lives,
some undoubtedly of priceless potential value to society,
would have been saved. At the date of this occurrence the
1 New York Medical Record, August 19, 1893.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 265
foetus is first felt to be alive by the mother, though of course
it has been hitherto steadily developing and making active
movements, which, however, have been too feeble to make
themselves apparent.
Let us here quote from the report of the committee ap-
pointed by the New York Medico-Legal Society in 1872
James J. O'Dea, M.D. (Chairman), Elbridge T. Gerry,
George F. Shrady, M.D., William Shrady, Stephen
Rogers, M.D., Judge Gunning S. Bedford, committee:
"At length Christianity came to measure swords with
the growing evil" i.e., in the first century. "For a time
the contest was warm. A society corrupted by ill-gotten
wealth and sensual gratification would not surrender such
convenient doctrine without a determined resistance. The
battle waxed fierce, but the already assured triumph of the
purifying faith was postponed by a compromise (how orig-
inated or by whom proposed does not appear) no less dis-
astrous than the pagan theory it supplanted.
" By this compromise it was agreed to consider the foetus
as endowed with life only from the date of the maternal
sensation called ' quickening. ' Abortions forced after
' quickening ' were branded as serious crimes, but all so
caused before this period were suffered to pass unnoticed.
Henceforth ' quick ' became a word of evil omen. It is
true the canon law subsequently disregarded this com-
promise, declared the foetus alive from conception, and con-
demned its destruction at any period of utero-gestation as a
great and wicked crime. The Christian Church, to its eter-
nal honor be it said, has ever advocated and enforced the
principle of the inviolability of foetal life. But the mis-
chief could not be undone. A doctrine, only a degree less
heartless than its pagan predecessor, took a firm hold on
society. How effectually it influences the opinion and
practice of our own time, how completely it has permeated
all, but more particularly the higher, ranks of contemporary
society, needs not to be insisted upon here. Among those
266 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
who are competent to pronounce on this question of
* quickening ' there is, however, but one opinion, and to it
your committee ask the undivided attention of the com-
munity. TJie foetus is alive from conception, and all inten-
tional 'killing oj it is murder. The world is free to discuss
the transcendental problem concerning the stage of develop-
ment at which the foatus becomes endowed with a soul. If
there never were such an existence as a soul, -if men per-
ished utterly when they died, laws against murder would
still hold good, because laws against murder were enforced,
not for the soul's sake, but to preserve the peace and even
the existence of society."
What is the significance of this sinister word " quicken-
ing," which has for so many centuries been the cause of
millions of deaths, and which has persisted in our statutes,
so that our laws have made it the basis of a distinction be-
tween the degrees of guilt of criminal abortion? The de-
ductions from the word have been entirely erroneous and
immoral.
Quickening occurs at that time in the life of the foetus
when the mother's perception first enables her to detect
life in her womb by its active movements ; then its throes of
life unmistakably arrest her consciousness and render her
reasonably certain that she is with child. The movements
of the child are due to a reflex action of its nervous system,
whereby it assumes positions favorable for its growth, and
these motions occur long before the time when there is any
possibility of their being perceived by the parent as may
occasionally be seen in the muscular actions of embryos of
abortions occurring before the natural time of "quicken-
ing." The foetus, in the earlier months of pregnancy, is
very small in proportion to the size of the cavity which it
occupies, and, floating in a large membranous sac filled with
amniotic fluid, it may freely sivim or move about without
imparting the slightest sensation to its mother. Later
on, as it increases in size, it more completely fills the uter-
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 267
ine cavity, and is able, as it were, to get a " purchase" on
one side of its confined space while it kicks against the
other. These motions are at first slight, and Montgomery
has compared the sensation which they impart to the
mother " to the tremulous motion of a little bird held in
the hand" ; others describe it as a " fluttering" or " pulsa-
ting" sensation; later on the motions become so violent
that bystanders can see the effect by the marked kicking
within the mother's womb, and she sometimes cries out
in pain and alarm at their intensity.
" The pregnant woman receives a great many hints as
the signs and symptoms accumulate and corroborate each
other that a live and growing foetus is developing in her
uterus, but she now waits for a decided kick before she
will believe that the foetus is alive. This kick is awaited
anxiously by the woman as well as the law to announce
that the child is sufficiently formed for its destruction to
constitute even a misdemeanor.
" It must kick very decidedly and unmistakably for several
months before its killing constitutes a felony, and, as one
judge has held, should it be knocked on the head with a
hammer or strangled with a garter after its head is born,
but before it is wholly delivered and separate from its
mother, it is not sufficiently alive in the eye of the law for
its killing to constitute murder." 1
Public opinion and the courts have for a long time seem-
ingly contended that at this time the soul meets the body,
but we know that the child is as much alive in one mouth
as another, that its individuality dates from the time that
the spermatozoon first impregnated the ovum, and that
subsequently to its creation it was as much alive in the
dim dawn of its existence as in maturity.
The foetus is quite able to employ its muscles at the tenth
week; and "quickening" is frequently felt as early as that,
|u Abortion and its Effects." Joseph Taber Johnson, M.D.,
American Journal of Obstetrics, vol. xxxiii., No. 1, 1896,
268 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
though usually not until it is about four and a half months
old. However, this sensation is sometimes not experienced
till the sixth month, and sometimes not at all even when the
child is ruddy and strong. The fact that " quickening" has
never been felt does not at all imply that the foetus is not per-
fectly well and healthy, though the phenomenon does occur
in the large majority of pregnancies. "Quickening" is
merely an incident, and a trifling one, in the course of the
pregnancy ; it does not in any way indicate the union of
" life" or the " soul" with the body, nor any new state in
the existence of the foetus, but is merely an incidental per-
ception by the mother of the very active manifestation of a
pre-existing life. Is it not most evidently absurd to sup-
pose that the foetus is not endowed with life until the
mother can feel its motions? What has it been doing all
this time if it has not been growing and developing? Its
muscles and the bones to which they are attached must, of
necessity, have time to grow and develop before it can
make movements of sufficient violence for the mother to
detect.
As the reader sits in his chair perusing these pages he
is not conscious that the blood in his arteries and veins is
coursing through them endowed with vitality, and yet, be-
cause he cannot detect any sensation whatever, it is none
the less vital.
Some advance the argument that the foetus, being de-
pendent for its existence on its connections with the
mother, has not a separate life, and that consequently it
may be wilfully destroyed without incurring the guilt of
murder. But are we not all of us dependent for our existence
upon the media of our environments the atmosphere we
breathe, the food and drink which nourish us, and the fire
and raiment which give us warmth? Neither do we adults
lead independent existences, and to deprive us of any one of
these agencies upon which our lives hang would be mur-
der. The infant at its mother's breast is no less dependent
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 269
upon her than the foetus which gets its nourishment through
the umbilical cord and placenta. The plea that the child
may be killed because it is dependent for its existence upon
its mother is as applicable to the suckling as to the foetus.
A pregnant woman is sacred and should so be regarded
both by herself and others; her hallowed womb is the
atelier of Nature, in which the child should be nourished
safely, in perfect tranquillity, and undisturbed in its evolu-
tionary stages by the faintest suspicion of a plot against
its defenceless life. How ineffectual and absurd is the
law which requires that " quickening" must have been felt
by the mother in order to establish an indictable offence !
If the sensation were denied by the mother to be appreci-
able at the time of the deed, who is to gainsay the truth of
the assertion? No one except the mother feels the first
"quickening," and, especially as it is a painless sensation,
she can deny its presence with impunity.
Historical. Let us shortly consider the execrable his-
tory of Criminal Abortion, and then inquire further into
the frequency of the practice in our present life. It is a
picture of human crimes and weaknesses a history of as-
sassination a consideration of which may prevent the evil
deeds from gaining an infamous acceptance by posterity.
Fceticide has been chronicled from the earliest times, and
casts a shadow over our land to-day ; it is no new crime, but
has been practised among all nations with the sole excep-
tion of the Jews. The statutes of Moses registered no laws
in relation to this crime, except the sweeping law of the
sixth commandment, " TJiou sJialt not kill." Jewish wo-
men have ever considered it an honor to bear large families
to their husbands, and this is one reason why the Jews have
spread over the earth and prospered in spite of the most
violent opposition. This remarkable people, who have a
history which is the "standing astonishment of the world,"
can never rise to preeminence among the nations until the
curse under which they labor is removed; nor can they
270 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
be annihilated, because they live under a blessing the
propitious influence of their kind of ancient civilization
being in no small measure due to a strict adherence to the
Mosaic laws governing their sexual hygiene and relation-
ships. However, the writer has been told by Jewish doc-
tors that the crime is beginning to spread among the
Americanized Jewesses, but only among that class who
have put aside all religion.
Among the Mohammedans the practice is very prevalent,
for, although it is contrary to the laws of Mohammed, it is
considered less wicked than to give birth to an illegitimate
child.
In China, Japan, India and Africa this practice has been,
and still is, fearfully prevalent. These benighted peo-
ples, with their teeming and redundant populations and
overtaxed food-supply, place very little value on human
life. It is related that during the last century vehicles
went regularly round the streets of Pekin every day to col-
lect the bodies of infants, martyrs of infanticide; if a Chi-
nese sailor fall overboard, he is allowed to perish without
any effort to save him ; in India thousands upon thousands
of infants, mostly females, were thrown into the sacred
Ganges to be devoured by the crocodiles ; in Madagascar,
New Granada and Greenland, if the mother dies during
or after confinement, the living child is buried with her;
and in Africa the wives and female infants are frequently
buried alive with the head of the family. With such ideas
of the value of human life, is it to be wondered at that
abortion is fearfully prevalent? In Polynesia and among
the Indians of our own continent the crime is common.
Plato advocated the procuring of abortion in the " Eepub-
lic" ; ' Aristotle taught that no child should be permitted
to be born alive whose mother was more than forty or
whose father was more than fifty years of age. 8 The
'Lib. v.
Polit.,"lib. vii., c. 17.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 271
Athenian mother placed her new-born child at the feet of
its father, who decided upon its lot, though the semblance
of legality was usually followed by calling in five neighbors
as a sort of court. Deformed children, girls, and those of
the inferior classes were thus frequently condemned to
death.
The teachings of the ancient Greek and Roman philoso-
phers resulted so disastrously that it became necessary to
denounce the practice, and this was vehemently done by
Ovid, 1 Seneca, 2 and by Juvenal. 3 In one "satire," after
praising the exemplary patience with which the matrons
of the lower classes bore the pains of labor and the fatigues
of nursing, he upbraids the ladies of fashion with their
unwillingness to submit to these duties. "You'll scarce
hear tell," says Juvenal, "of a lying-in among ladies of
quality, such is the power of art, such the force of medicines
prepared by the midwife to cause barrenness and abortion."
" Sed jacet aurato vix ulla puerpera lecto.
Tantura artes hujus, tantum medicamina possunt,
Quae steriles facit, atque homines in ventre necandos
Conducit."
Rome was filled with abortionists, the crime prevailing,
as in our own day, chiefly among the so-called upper
classes of society, and infanticide continued to prevail in
Rome until the epoch of Ulpian (inA.D. 205), who repressed
it with severe penalties. Throughout these several nations
in the different centuries many millions of lives have been
sacrificed, some of which, no doubt, would have been of
priceless value to the world. The recorded experience
of those times, while shocking us, leads us to consider the
advance which we have 'made in the same direction.
Prevalence of the Crime To-day. With the present stancl-
" Amor, "lib. ii.
'"Consol. ad. Helv.," 16.
Satire vi., 591-596.
272 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ard of health in civilized society one pregnancy out of every
five results in accidental abortion, and ninety per cent of
married women suffer such a mishap at least once during
their child-bearing life. So frequently does this accident
occur unintentionally and regrettably that one must be ex-
ceedingly loth to impute wrong motives to a woman when-
ever he may have cause to believe that she has so suffered.
But with every allowance for the great frequency of ac-
cidental abortion, it is well recognized, by those who are
in a position to know, that the intentional and unnecessary
destruction of the foetus represents a carnage of such vast
proportions as to be almost beyond belief. There is no
darker page in history than the record of this sin, and
probably at no period has the slaughter been greater than
in our own times. The results to our own country and to
the world at large have been disastrous to the last degree,
and with the spread of atrocious advertising by abortion-
ists, and the open display and sale of alleged abortifacient
nostrums by the druggists, one cannot wonder at the fact
that it is alarmingly on the increase.
The consultation-rooms of physicians are in reality con-
fessionals, wherein, trusting in the known inviolability of a
doctor's confidence, the patients daily tell of their mis-
deeds, led to do so by the desire to aid in their bodily
cure. Statistics never have been and never can be pub-
lished showing the frequency of the crime, and our only
evidence must be by confession, for the deed is done
secretly ; the mother of course seeks to hide her shame,
and cannot be compelled by the law to testify against her-
self, and the abortionist takes good care to stop up the
keyhole and the chinks of the door if his treatment room.
It is only by the testimony of many hundreds of physicians
that we can gain a fair idea of the frequency of the crime.
Countless thousands of abortions occur that are never
returned as such to the Health Bureau. Many a death
from abortion is reported as being due to heart failure,
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 273
anaemia, syncope, inflammation of the bowels, peritonitis,
pelvic abscess, kidney diseases, embolism, etc. It is a
very difficult matter, in fact, to prove that an early abor-
tion has occurred before the positive signs of pregnancy
have been distinguished, e.g., the sounds of the foetal heart,
"quickening," and " ballottement, " or the actual feeling of
the fcetus within the womb by the physician.
We physicians, nevetheless, are constantly called upon
to attend women who are aborting or who have aborted.
We know criminal abortion to be prominent among the
great vices of the day, and it has increased so rapidly in
our day and generation that it has created surprise and
alarm in the minds of all conscientious persons who are
informed of the extent to which it is carried. A very great
number of abortions occur which are purposely concealed
even from the knowledge of physicians, but in most cases
the women are eventually compelled to apply for surgical
treatment, and to confess the origin of their ailments.
Prior to 1840 the testimony of American physicians is
that criminal abortion was not practised very generally,
and to but a slight extent by married women; but this
verification has now all been changed.
The "Keport of the Special Committee on Criminal
Abortion" committee, Edward Cox, H. O. Hitchcock, S.
S. French contains this startling passage :
" To so great an extent is this [abortion] now practised
by American Protestant women that, by calculation of one
of the committee, based upon correspondence with nearly
one hundred physicians, there come to the knowledge of
the profession seventeen abortions to every one hundred
pregnancies ; to these the committee believe may be added
as many more that never come to the physician's knowl-
edge, making thirty -four per cent, or one-third, of all cases
ending in miscarriage; that in the United States the num-
ber is not less than one hundred thousand, and the num-
1 Transactions of the Michigan State Board of Health, p. 165.
IS
274 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ber of women who die from its immediate effects not less
than six thousand per annum. "
Dr. W. A. Chandler, a physician of over thirty years'
practice, has been quoted as saying that he believed that
more than one-half of the human race died before birth,
and that three-fourths of these were abortions by intent.
Edward Cox, M.D., President of the Michigan State
Medical Society, says :
"A combination of circumstances has produced a de-
praved and debauched public sentiment that not only winks
at but condones, palliates, and defends the crime. It goes
further in many instances ; it recognizes the abortionist as
a useful member of society, and even extols him as a bene-
factor. It will take line upon line and precept upon pre-
cept, facts, figures, and eloquence, to overcome this false
and pernicious sentiment. Yet it must be overcome before
we can make the least progress in the much-needed refor-
mation." 1
Some abortionist is found in every town and village, and
the crime is not limited to any section or country. No one
for an instant supposes that the procreative ability of man-
kind has very materially lessened within the past genera-
tion; yet it needs no very careful scrutiny to observe that
the standard size of our families has fallen from what the
average used to be in recent generations. An American
family nowadays too often consists of a husband and wife,
with perhaps a child or two not often more than three or
four children. Such are the recent statistics, and the cause
cannot be referred to a lessened fecundity of the men and
women. The reason can, however, not infrequently be
found in one of three causes : (a) either one or both of
the married parties have been rendered sterile, usually
from a gonorrhoea which was thought to be cured ; (b) or
criminal abortion is performed; (c) or expedients are
1 Transactions of the Michigan Medical Society, Lansing, 1879,
p. 369.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 275
adopted for the prevention of conception. In passing we
may say that even this latter procedure is a curse to the
good health and the morals of both parties, and that there
is no harmless way in which to prevent conception. A
home without the prattle of children is the most dreary,
lonely and melancholy of households, only too frequently
disordered by estrangements and jealousies and inconstan-
cies. To be "barren," or "sterile," without "issue," is
the greatest of griefs in a normal marriage relationship.
As many as twenty years ago Dr. Nathan Allan, of
Massachusetts, pointed out "that the native American
stock of that State seemed to be dying out." Whereas
one hundred years ago it was common to see families with
from six to ten children, he said that at the time of which
he spoke it was rare to find a family of three children, and
not unusual to find only one child or none at all. And,
further, the same authority showed that in those towns in
which the American families predominated the rate of birth
was less than the death-rate, and that the increase of popu-
lation was left to those of recent foreign origin.
Our large families are more apt to be found among Roman
Catholics and those who have recently emigrated to this
country.
In fairness to the Roman Church it must be said to its
glory that its women rarely resort to this crime, the priests
giving the soundest of teaching to their parishioners on
these vital points, as follows :
" That the destruction of the embryo at any period from
the first instant of conception is a crime equal in guilt to
that of murder ; that to admit its practice is to open the
way for the most unbridled licentiousness, and to take
away the responsibility of maternity is to destroy one of
the strongest bulwarks of female virtue."
The private spiritual and hygienic directions which are
given in the " confessionals" by men who are usually intel-
ligent and saintly are undoubtedly of great value to certain
276 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
classes of people who are incapable of judging rightly for
themselves.
" It is not, of course, intended to imply that Protestant-
ism, as such, in any way encourages, or indeed permits,
the practice of inducing abortion; its tenets are uncom-
promisingly hostile to all crime. So great, however, is
the popular ignorance regarding this offence that an ab-
stract morality is here comparatively powerless ; and there
can bo no doubt that the Eomish ordinance, flanked on the
one hand by the confessional, and by denouncement and
excommunication on the other, has saved to the world
thousands of infant lives." *
And again let us quote from the report of the Special
Committee on Criminal Abortion :
" It is well known that in this country the faithful minis-
trations of the Catholic clergy prevent the commission of
the crime to such an extent that it is very seldom com-
mitted by a Catholic married woman, and the committee
believes that if the Protestant clergy would properly pre-
sent the subject to their congregations, with the assistance
of the press and other auxiliaries, the crime would soon
become as rare among the Protestant as the Catholic wo-
men. But the clergy claimed to be ignorant on this sub-
ject. They must therefore be instructed and urged on to
their duties by agitating it through the press and in as-
semblies like this and others of which we have spoken.
The press needs educating almost as much as the clergy
before it can place the subject in an intelligent manner be-
fore its readers." 2
The daily press is largely responsible for the increasing
frequency of this crime by permitting the obscene adver-
tisements of charlatans and abortionists to appear, dis-
gustingly aiding in the work of criminal malpractice and
'Storer, Essay, p. 42.
a Transactions of the Michigan State Board of Health, 1881, p,
166.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 277
being most efficient accessories in this abhorrent iniquity
of foaticide. It is the price of blood. If the daily papers
would consent to give up the fees received for advertising
this class of work in their "personal columns," they could
do more to abolish it than all other agencies combined, and
if they will not voluntarily do so the respODsibility will
then rest on the legislatures which fail to enact laws to
prevent the public press from printing suggestive adver-
tisements. These avaricious abortionists, ignorant pre-
tenders, and unprincipled impostors roam over the country
from village to town, putting up their signs, and freely
using the daily papers and the mails to allure the ignorant
and the wicked and the perverted ones of the community
to their ruin.
So badly does Lombroso, the great European criminol-
ogist, think of the moral laxity of our laws that, with per-
fect truth, he says : " Another occasional offence, specifically
local, is abortion in the United States, where it is so dif-
fused that public opinion has ceased to condemn it. In
proof, we have the advertisements of doctors and female
midwives who practise chiefly in this branch and recom-
mend their establishments in newspapers and on posters." 1
It is greatly to be desired that Congress shall create an
additional office for a cabinet minister, who shall be the
director of a national bureau of health.
"We have cabinet officers to advance the interests of agri-
culture, the postal service, and our internal and external
policies, but no national influence is at work for the better-
ment of our nation's health except the power to establish
quarantine. It is true that each of our States represents
a sovereignty and that each State is jealous of these rights ;
but, nevertheless, a cabinet officer of health could dissemi-
nate knowledge and bring about much-needed reforms.
It is high time, indeed, that the law should awake to
the necessity of appointing censors or supervisors over the
1 Lombroso, "The Female Offender."
278 HEREDITY AND MOBALS.
public press; for if left to itself there is every reason to
believe that it will continue, for the sake of the blood-
money, to aid and abet the traffic in human life by admit-
ting to its columns the advertisements of abortionists,
baby-farmers, procurers and brothels. If the reader is
not aware of the truth of this, it is simply because he has
failed to inform himself; and for ready proof he is referred
to the daily papers of our large cities. All the papers do
not sin equally in this respect ; but if the reader will take
the trouble to send for specimen copies, especially of
Sunday editions, to Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Phila-
delphia, Boston, Washington, Cincinnati, or any other
large city, he will see innumerable alluring advertisements
plainly inserted by the keepers of houses of assignation
and brothels and by abortionists. It is a shame that
America tolerates such journalism.
In the personal columns of these papers may be found
such matter as the following : " Ladies in trouble will not
regret calling at "; "Mrs. , midwife, receives
ladies in trouble"; " Sanitarium, perfect seclusion, fe-
male diseases a specialty, results guaranteed" ; " Attention,
ladies ! pennyroyal pills 'are the best" ; " Belief for la-
dies, in sealed letter by return mail for twenty-five stamps" ;
"Women's complaints and irregularities successfully
treated by old Dr. ." Along with these there are the
open advertisements of "massage parlors," which are per-
haps worse than brothels, and of "rubber goods," and
such nostrums as claim to " prevent" disease or to " enlarge
the parts," or to "restore lost vitality."
The medical profession looks upon this apathy of the
law-makers with utter abhorrence. Of course there is no
misunderstanding these advertisements by " those who are
in trouble," and of course the remedies advertised are sold
merely for profit and not from philanthropic motives, be-
ing utterly inefficient, but nevertheless the minds of the
community become poisoned; pregnant women having
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 279
tried the abortifacient remedies advertised become desper-
ate after their failure to act, and seek other more effective
means, until they succeed in their undertaking. Aborti-
facient drugs act by producing violent purgation or vomit-
ing, and may so inflame the stomach and intestines as to
cause death ; none of them are safe, and none are ever used
by physicians even for the purpose of producing " thera-
peutic," or necessary abortion.
Therapeutic, or Justifiable Abortion. The law leaves it
entirely to the judgment of the medical profession to de-
termine when it is necessary and warrantable to produce
abortion. No wise physician, however, would bring this
about except after deliberate consultation with one or more
fellow-practitioners of repute.
There is no immorality in producing an abortion thera-
peutically if it gives a chance of saving the life of the
mother, when, if it were not done, it would be almost cer-
tain that both mother and child would perish.
The indications for therapeutic abortion appear " when-
ever the mother is suffering from disease arising from the
pregnancy or originating before it, or accidentally occur-
ring during it, which imperils her life, and there is a rea-
sonable probability that she will recover if abortion occur." !
Abortion has been brought on in the interests of the
mother in certain diseases; for instance, in severe affec-
tions of the heart, or lungs, or kidneys, when acute symp-
toms supervene; in certain forms of Bright's disease asso-
ciated with excessive dropsy ; in cases where there is an
enormous distention of the abdomen from twins or a
superabundance of liquor amnii; in the uncontrollable
vomiting of pregnancy; in pernicious anaemia; in chorea
and convulsions ; in hemorrhages from the uterus due to a
wrong position of the placenta (placenta prcevia); in ex-
treme pelvic deformity where it would be impossible for
the woman to bear a full-time child; and in certain dis-
, "Text-Book on Obstetrics,"?. 602.
280 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
placements of the gravid uterus when it has become m-
carcerated and is liable to gangrene.
However, the attending physicians would carefully con-
sider whether the woman's condition would not be rendered
more threatening by the induction of abortion, and they
would, in every case where possible, defer the operation
until after the time of viability ; and, further, in cases of
pelvic deformity they would probably allow the woman to
go to full time and then deliver her by the Caesarian section
or by the operation of symphyseotomy.
No intelligent critic can offer any valid objection to
therapeutic abortion when it is done after deliberation and
consultation, and the law in every civilized community
concedes this privilege to the medical profession.
In Catholic countries the priests are called in as consul-
tants and assume a part of the responsibility.
The Ineffectual Punishment of the Crime. Judicial in-
vestigation has proved to be almost totally worthless in
regard to this crime, and the administration of justice con-
cerning it is practically a dead letter. The crime being
perpetrated secretly by parties whose mutual interest it is
to cover up their guilt, an arrest is seldom made unless
the woman dies, while juries, reasoning by some obscure
psychological process, seldom convict the abortionist.
Except toward the abortionist we can hardly in mercy ask
for the severest penalties of legislative enactments ; for the
father can rarely be touched, and the woman is usually in
a position to ask who shall cast the first stone at her. The
proofs which would lead to substantiation are difficult of
demonstration, and the community very properly is not
disposed to visit the mother with great harshness.
Engelmann, in an article on "Abortion," says:
"Abortionists everywhere are known. In the larger
cities of this continent, as well as Europe, they achieve a
widespread fame, are well known, and yet rarely, if ever,
convicted. It is a notorious fact that these worst of crimi-
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 281
nals almost invariably escape; and even in the states of
Germany, where the laws are strict and rigidly enforced,
where the crime of abortion is punished by imprisonment
of from four to twenty years, that eminent teacher of medi-
cal jurisprudence, J. L. Caspar, says that of all the many
accused never a one was condemned, and in no one case
was the crime proven. They are sheltered by the words
of the law and the sympathy of the community."
Laws have no efficacy unless there is an inclination to
obey them; when this inclination is firmly established in
a community they serve merely as guide-posts. If the
hearts and consciences of the people are callous, if they
cannot see the expediency and justice of the laws, and if
public opinion does not sustain the decrees of the bench,
then the laws are dead letters and should be stricken from
the statute books, since they cannot be enforced.
However severe the laws may be in posse they have had
very little perceptible effect in esse, nor is this to be won-
dered at when we consider how much is actually permitted
to be done to encourage licentiousness by the toleration of
brothels, impure literature, and indecent theatrical shows.
If a community admits the untrue physiological propa-
ganda that sexual license is necessary for the men, then it
will be impossible, as the results have shown, to compel a
girl to cherish the badge of her shame while her seducer
goes free. Such a community visits all the penalties upon
the mother and the absolutely innocent child ; so that the
destruction of her offspring and the menace to her health
seem no more to be feared by her than the cruel punish-
ments which the double standard of purity concerning
the sexes visits upon bastardism and feminine unchastity.
Mankind will yet be governed by sentiments of love, and
society will yet look upon the pregnant woman, whether
married or single, as sacred, and " deal gently with those
that are with young."
1 Pepper's "System of Medicine."
282 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Whatever can be accomplished in leading the pregnant
woman to refrain from this unnatural crime must come
from education and that alone ; for no dread of future pun-
ishment in time or eternity seems more deterrent to her
than the present disgrace.
While pleading for mercy and compassion for the dis-
graced woman and her bastard child the exact opposite
of what prevails we cannot be too severe on the heartless
miscreants who are permitted to ply their vile trade with
comparative impunity, and we cannot find language strong
enough to express our detestation for the laws which do
not protect the child in utero until " quickening" has been
acknowledged.
* There is not a household in the land or in the civilized
world which is not more or less permeated by the influence
and teaching of the noble science which we practise, and
this ignorance of the law of life, or the fact of life, before
quickening, could, if we were sufficiently alive to its im-
portance, be utterly done away with and wiped off the face
of the earth in a single year. Otherwise good women
would no longer boast of the number of foetuses they had
gotten rid of, and they would no longer teach their sisters
how they could accomplish the same ' innocent' feat. When
it is known and universally acknowledged that to extinguish
the first spark of human life is a crime of the same nature,
both against our Maker and society, as it is to destroy an
infant, a child, or a man, then, and not until then, will
abortion cease to be a common occurrence, and good men
and women become ready to assume the responsibility of
their own deliberate acts." l
The attorney -general of the State of Massachusetts re-
ported the arrests and trials of thirty-two abortionists dur-
ing a period extending over eight years, and not one single
conviction resulted. Here in the capital of the nation a
notorious abortionist was recently found guilty by a jury,
Joseph Taber Johnson, loc. tit., p. 7.
CRIMINAL ABORTlOtf. 283
and sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude for causing
the death of the mother; he is now free and, it is thought,
still imbrues his hands in blood with impunity.
The proper term for the destruction of the foetus at any
stage of its existence is murder in the first degree, and the
law should punish it as such. Abortion induced before
the time of viability of the foetus i.e., before the sixth or
seventh month necessarily contemplates its death, and
even if it be done later it is safe to say that where it is
done criminally and not therapeutically the child will be
allowed to perish. The arrests of abortionists are usually
not for the crime intended by them, but for bungling work
which constitutes a double murder, the mother as well as
the child dying as a result of the operation.
The Abortionist. The abortionist fattens on the law
which denominates the emptying of the womb of a preg-
nant woman merely a misdemeanor before "quickening"
and a felony only thereafter. Of course the sensation of
"quickening" is denied and none can dispute it. The
crime is committed in the dark without witnesses, and the
woman is under oath to maintain secrecy, which, being a
party to the deed, she naturally does, with the occasional
exceptions of death-bed repentances. Of course the abor-
tionist, for his own selfish reasons, does not contemplate
such a contingency as the death of the mother, it being to
his interest that she shall survive ; but as regards the foetus
the act is one of cool, deliberate, unrelenting murder, and
the mother is a party to the crime.
What sort of man or woman is it to whom the woman
applies for relief?
" The professional abortionist is a being who recognizes
no higher law than his own base interests, whose heart has
long ceased to know a humane feeling, whose soul is
freighted with abominable crimes, whose hands are stained
with the blood of innocent children, victims of his foul lust
for gain. The sentiments of our common humanity revolt
284 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
against so vile a wretch. Shall he be suffered to return to
his old haunts and his old evil ways, with appetite whetted
for more blood, after a few years spent in prison? All
experience utters a solemn warning against so blind a
policy." 1
The father, the mother and the abortionist, who connive
at the murder of the foetus, are devoid of all reason, all
morality, all pity, all mercy, and all love destitute of
natural instinct and regardless of all law, human or divine ;
they surely incur the weight of a tremendous responsibility
before God, and before the soul of the innocent babe, to
whom, as well as to their own consciences, they must be
prepared to offer a future explanation. How can a man or
woman, abandoned to a life of lasciviousness, continue in
the perverted courses of venery, with the resolve to cheat
Nature of her just dues, without incurring the wrath to
come? Illegitimate sexual congress is sin, not only moral
sin, but a natural sin, and those who indulge in it are
"sin's fools." It is the abortionist who tells them that
chastity is prejudicial to health, and that the "relief"
which he gives is of advantage to society ; and he is the
spontaneous product of the social and national pandering
to vice which is fanned and stimulated by the immoral-
ities and indecencies of many of our modern amusements
and orgies.
What are the Risks and Dangers Attendant upon the
Crime ? Very momentous ones indeed !
Each individual organ, and especially the uterus, of a
pregnant woman is prepared by a slow and gradual change
for the great effort which is to occur at the end of preg-
nancy, and if this effort be prematurely induced, whether
by accident or design, the system is found unprepared and
the imperfectly developed uterus is taken at a disadvantage,
so that it cannot contract with sufficient force to completely
1 " Report of Special Committee on Criminal Abortion, " New York
Medico-Legal Society, 1872.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 285
expel its contents. Abortion may result accidentally from
blows, falls, wounds, violent coitus, excessive emotion,
mental shock, etc. ; or it may be done therapeutically in
the interests of the mother's life or health; or it may be
brought about criminally by violence, by mechanical injury
to the uterus or ovum, or possibly by the use of certain
drugs.
Criminal abortion is usually done at some period be-
tween the third and sixth month of pregnancy, because
before the lapse of three months there is no appreciable
enlargement, so that the woman hopes that she has merely
missed her menstrual periods, and is not sure that she is
pregnant; but after the sixth month the abdominal en-
largement is so evident and " quickening" so active that it
then seems to her like deliberate murder. At the time of
normal birth i.e., at the end of the two hundred and eighty
days there has occurred what physiologists call a " fatty
degeneration" in that portion of the placenta which is at-
tached to the uterus, whereby it may be expelled whole and
entire, thus permitting the womb to contract firmly, pre-
venting an inordinate flow of blood, and allowing the uterus
to rapidly return to its natural comparatively small size by
a process called "involution." Any deviation from this
process entails a chain of events which may lay the founda-
tion of a wide range of serious disorders, such as positional
displacements of the uterus; a chronic " subinvolution"
which keeps up a continued enlargement and engorgement
of the womb ; leucorrhcea and copious hemorrhages which
deplete the system ; ovarian neuralgia, pains in the back,
thighs and head; general blood-poisoning leading to
death; pus collections in the ovaries, Fallopian tubes
and peritoneum; peritonitis which mats the pelvic
organs together by adhesive bands ; the growth of polypi
and tumors, and various other serious and permanent
disorders.
It is rare indeed to find a woman who will confess to an
286 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
abortion, who does not suffer severely and protractedly from
its results.
An accidental abortion or miscarriage is safer than when
a criminal operation is done, because in the former the
embryo or foetus usually dies some time before its birth,
and the fatty degeneration of the placenta has occurred
which sometimes allows the free expulsion of all the frag-
ments ; but in forced abortions done with criminal intent
the dangers are more grave. In the latter event the element
of time is eliminated which would allow the placenta to
separate by fatty degeneration, the abortion coming on
rapidly without any chance of a complete emptying of the
uterus; serious damage is often done to. the mother by
lacerations inflicted by instruments in the hands of bun-
gling operators, and then sloughing, mortification, septi-
caemia and peritonitis ensue. In addition every woman is
bound to feel a strong compunction for this unnatural
deed, pity for the child nestling within her womb, regret
for the loss of her babe which would have proved so dear
to her, sorrow and shame at casting from her the product
of a husband's or lover's affection, fear of the law, and re-
morse for violating the sixth commandment of God's laws.
There is no wonder then at the frequency with which her
health is sacrificed and her reason overthrown.
However active the criminal measures may be, the attempt
is by no means always followed by success ; and the child
may be born at the natural time with a fractured limb, or
blind, or paralyzed, or an epileptic, or idiot.
Here is one deplorable case :
"A lady, determined not to have any more children,
went to a professional abortionist, and he attempted to
effect the desired end by violence. With a pointed instru-
ment the attempt was again and again made, but without
the looked-for result. So vigorously was the effort made
that, astonished at no result being obtained, the individual
stated that there must be some mistake, that the lady could
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 287
not be pregnant, and refused to perform any further opera-
tions. Partially from doubt and partially from fear, noth-
ing further was attempted, and in due process of time the
woman was delivered of an infant, shockingly mutilated,
with one eye entirely put out and the brain so injured that
this otherwise robust child was entirely wanting in ordi-
nary sense. This poor mother, it would seem, needs no
future punishment for her sin. Ten years face to face
with this poor infant, whose imbecility was her direct
work has it not punished her sufficiently?" '
Abortions are liable to occur with increasing frequency
after one has taken place, and the possibilities of impreg-
nation, owing to the diseased condition of the woman's
reproductive organs, are more remote, so that even though
she may subsequently desire children she may then be
sterile. In addition, the lives of children born subse-
quently are more apt to be embittered by unhealthy, dis-
eased and deformed bodies.
Women are destined by Providence to bear children; it
is their natural role and they should submit to it. Either
let them and the men totally abstain from coition or else
consent to be mothers and fathers. Most women entertain
the belief that the earlier the abortion occurs the more
trivial are the consequences; but every obstetrician will
testify that he would far rather attend a full-time labor
than an abortion, and that he fears the latter the less the
nearer the woman is advanced toward the full term of
gestation.
The reader will remember that up to the end of the third
month the placenta and chorion are firmly attached to the
walls of the uterus, and thus an abortion occurring before
the completion of this period is almost certain to terminate
in what is called an "incomplete abortion," with retention
of fragments of the ovum, so that profuse hemorrhage and
grave septic conditions are almost certain to follow unless
1 Grander, " Con jugal Sins, " p. 128.
288 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the patient falls under the care of a skilful surgeon. In a
case of impending abortion, until some portions of the
ovum have been expelled, the practitioner considers it as a
" threatened abortion" and does his best to avert it by ap-
propriate treatment, continued for a few days until all the
threatening symptoms have passed; and many a woman
who has sought the seclusion of hospital treatment has,
much to her disgust and disappointment, had the miscar-
riage averted.
But if the abortion becomes "inevitable," a different
policy must be assumed.
The patient must be put under the influence of ether or
chloroform and submitted to a regular surgical operation,
and for this the most scrupulously painstaking prepara-
tions must be made. A degree of cleanliness must be at-
tained never thought of by the most careful housewife the
object in view being to render the field of the operation, the
instruments, the hands of the surgeon and of his assistants
and nurses, and everything which might touch the area to
be operated upon, absolutely free from those microscopic
vegetable organisms which are the cause of putrefaction
and septicaemia.
All the minutice of this surgical technique cannot be here
explained, but some idea can be given by the following
short description :
The hands and arms of the operator and his assistants
are thoroughly scrubbed for five or ten minutes with a stiff
brush and hot soap-suds and water, the finger-nails are cut
close and carefully cleaned, and then the hands and arms
are soaked for several minutes in some powerful germicide
solution, such as a strong solution of permanganate of
potash followed by a dip in oxalic-acid solution, in abso-
lute alcohol, in a solution of bichloride of mercury, 1 : 1,000,
or in some other antiseptic known to be effective.
The instruments, the towels and the dressings have all
been rendered absolutely "sterile" by either boiling, or
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 289
baking them in an oven, or exposing them to superheated
steam.
The patient has been prepared for the operation by ap-
propriate medical treatment, and the parts adjacent to the
field of operation have been scrubbed with hot soap-suds
and irrigated with an antiseptic or boiled water. The
body and limbs of the patient are then covered with several
wet, sterilized towels, and, the anaesthesia being attended
to by an assistant who does nothing else, all is ready for
the operation. The preparations occupy far more time
and trouble than the operation itself, and no less degree of
care and skill is required than a surgeon would employ in
trephining the skull.
After the operation the patient is not permitted to leave
her bed for at least a week, while rest and quiet are en-
joined for several days more until the uterus has regained
its normal size and position, and the raw surface within it
has entirely healed.
With all these precautions, done by skilful hands, dili-
gently watched by a skilled surgeon, and treated by rest
in bed, good nursing, and a watchful expectancy against
sepsis, the operation is usually unattended by evil conse-
quences; but, fortunately, the necessity for resorting to
therapeutic abortion is now extremely infrequent since
modern surgical advances have made the Csesarean section
and symphyseotomy so safe, though the reputable doctor
is frequently called upon to take charge of a case immedi-
ately after the attempt has been made by the abortionist.
How different are the procedures and the subsequent his-
tory of the case if the abortion have been done criminally !
In this event a serious operation is done by stealth, with
no preliminary preparations, by an operator who is no
surgeon, heartless, immoral, with hands reeking with the
blood of other misdeeds, and with no assistants, upon a
patient who is desperate, disgraced, abandoned, and per-
haps exhausted by her efforts at concealment,
19
290 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The woman, having probably sought some reputable
physician to relieve her and having been refused, seeks an
advertising abortionist or ignorant midwife, and in many
instances even operates upon herself. Everything is done
with a total disregard for all surgical rules, in the prepara-
tion of the patient, in the preparation of the charlatan's
hands and instruments, and in the subsequent care and
treatment of the case. The abortionist desires the fee and
nothing else, except that the woman shall not die her
shattered health being a matter of no concern to the coarse
and unskilful brute.
The desperate and exhausted woman, embarrassed at the
necessity for concealment, arrives alone, often after a long
journey, with no friend or witness, at the wretched office
of this foul man, or woman, and bargains over the life of
the babe within her womb. Preparations for the operation
would excite suspicion, so there are none. The clandestine
operator, ignorant of anatomy and surgical technique,
clumsily passes a dirty and septic catheter, or other in-
strument, into the womb and ruptures the ovum. The
vagina is then stuffed with cotton to conceal the hemor-
rhage, and the woman, having paid the largest fee which
can be extracted from her, is told to depart, never to return
until she again requires similar treatment.
After a long journey in a cab or street-car or train, she
reaches home, in bad condition indeed, but continues about
her usual duties as unconcernedly as possible, lest she excite
suspicion. Within a few hours "labor pains" come on,
and she takes to her bed with the excuse of having cramps
in the bowels or perhaps painful menstruation. After a
few hours, or perhaps a couple of days, "something"
passes, and if it is a formed foetus she hides it and either
burns it or throws it down the sewer. Portions of the
placenta and chorion are sure to remain firmly fixed to the
walls of the uterus, but she is ignorant of that. After the
severe pains have subsided she gets up and resumes her
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 291
ordinary duties, flattering herself, or perhaps telling a
confidential friend, that everything is now all right.
For two or three days things continue to go fairly well
and she begins to laugh at the doctor who had pleaded
with her and had frightened her with the dangers which
menaced her.
But now her plight becomes worse and she is compelled
to take to her bed with alarming symptoms ; a reputable
physician is called and the confession made. He finds her
to be in a critical condition, with a fever ranging between
104 to 105 Fahrenheit; the tissues of the ovum which
were retained have become infected, the hemorrhagic dis-
charge is extremely offensive and putrid, and she shows
the symptoms of peritonitis and general blood-poisoning,
which conditions may directly destroy her life, or result in
serious and permanent pelvic disease.
In many instances such patients are compelled to submit
to severe mutilating operations whereby the abdomen must
be cut open for the purpose of evacuating collections of pus
from the pelvic tissues, and for the removal of suppurating
Fallopian tubes and ovaries. Such are of course rendered
sterile, and others apply for relief so late that there is little
chance of saving their lives.
" Convalescence is generally prolonged from these causes ;
and the patient has many weeks, and perhaps months, if
not years, of invalidism in which to regret the errors of an
ill-spent hour. Our free dispensaries and charity hospitals
afford innumerable examples of broken constitutions and
ruined lives which have had their sad beginning in an im-
properly treated abortion. Frequenters of our gynaeco-
logical clinics often state that the displacements or inflam-
mations of the uterus from which they suffer date back to
abortions occurring three, five, or ten years previously.
Many of the cases now operated on for otherwise incurable
pus tubes or chronic inflammatory disease of the ovaries
date all their troubles back to a neglected abortion. These
292 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
sufferings are not all confined to the charity patients in the
lower walks of life. They are as common as is the custom
of abortion itself. No one rank in society appropriates
them all. The experience of gynaecologists the world over
will confirm the statement that a majority of the patients
that we are called upon to treat in our offices or in the fine
residences of their fair owners are the outcome of abor-
tions or of the preventive measures against conception."
Many a woman, on the other hand, feels fairly well soon
after an abortion, except that she is pale and bloodless and
easily fatigued. Probably however, within a few weeks
she will be compelled to apply for relief to a physician, who
will find upon examination, serious pelvic trouble; there
will probably be a copious leucorrhoeal discharge, the uter-
us will be enlarged, soft and tender, and often misplaced
and bound down in abnormal position by dense cicatricial
bands of connective tissue ; the ovaries and Fallopian tubes
will probably be exquisitely tender and perhaps disor-
ganized into pus-sacs; inflammation of the bladder is a
common complication, and the septic infection not infre-
quently damages the kidneys. These pitiless consequences
follow upon what she perhaps thought a trivial amorous-
ness, and the bad beginning is followed by a miserable
ending.
The wretched woman, having stooped to such an unnat-
ural sin, feels a deep remorse, and no verdict of her own
can ever acquit her of guilt.
The subsequent history of the woman will be a sad one.
She will probably never be entirely well again. Her men-
strual periods will be attended with an undue loss of blood
and with acute suffering. She will probably suffer with
incontinence of urine, with continual "spotting" of blood
for weeks at a time, and perhaps from a tumor within the
womb either a "polyp" or a "fibroid tumor." If she
ever desires to become pregnant again and bear a child,
'Joseph Taber Johnson, loc. cit., p. 10.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 293
she is likely to be either sterile or to lose the products of
conception by an abortion or miscarriage ; for one of these
calamities prediposes to another, and so on in increasing
ratio.
In a spontaneous or natural abortion, on the other hand,
the results are not often so serious, and where there has
been skilled medical attendance it is practically devoid of
danger. Even after a criminal abortion, if the woman
were to apply for efficient medical treatment at once, the
results would not often be so serious, though, as a rule,
the dirty instruments which have been used upon her have
done irreparable mischief. No place could be more favor-
able for the growth of septic organisms than the warm,
moist cavity of the uterus, rendered especially vascular
and succulent by the pregnancy.
Of course the operation of criminal abortion, however
skilfully it might be done even by a trained surgeon, means
for the foetus death and murder, and, as it is almost inva-
riably practised, it means for the woman the ruin of her
health and character, and the jeopardy of her life.
The man who got her into this trouble and then aban-
doned her, cutting loose from all the promptings of con-
science, is, of course, a partner with her in guilt and re-
sponsibility, and all the oceans of the world cannot cleanse
him from blood-guiltiness. Any argument whatsoever
which might be brought forward for its being sometimes
necessary and expedient may be answered by the reply
that "the wages of sin is death." .
Our sympathy for the seduced woman, under a cloud of
shame and with a mind bordering on insanity, is great;
but for the man who drives her to this guilt and danger, it
is well that a merciful God is the judge.
Very often, indeed, the results of a criminal abortion are
immediately fatal from a variet}' of causes, and the medical
and lay press teems with the reports of such cases ; and yet
the women continue to allow themselves to be practised
294 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
upon with reckless abandon by these unscrupulous vul-
tures, who are permitted by the apathy of the law to adver-
tise themselves and to exist in every community. Of course
the women who seek relief from pregnancy abhor these
fiendish abortionists, and rarely apply to them until they
have been refused assistance in their wicked work by some
reputable physician. The position of physicians is indeed
unique ; no other class of men are urged to commit murder
as they are, but these temptations, which are presented to
every doctor, should be put aside without exception. No
argument which the woman may offer to save her from dis-
grace, no appeal to his sympathies, no fee which might ex-
cite his avarice, should lead him to commit this crime
against human and divine law. " Heart's Hood weighs too
heavily. "
" Every man who undertakes the practice of medicine is
met upon the threshold of his career by what I do not hes-
itate to pronounce one of the most powerful, baneful, dam-
ning combinations of temptations that can possibly assail
the human heart. All that is good, all that is evil within
him is subjected to the utmost pressure that can be brought
to bear by the combined influences of pity, sympathy, and
sometimes greed. Youth and beauty on bended knee, with
clasped hands and streaming eyes, implores help with more
devoted earnestness of purpose, with more burning reality
of feeling, than that with which it approaches the throne
of grace." '
A fair and just estimate of all the risks and dangers at-
tendant upon the crime will do much toward stopping the
prevalence of the custom more, perhaps, with some peo-
ple than any of the other arguments.
The Withdrawal of Maternal and Paternal Protection from
the Offspring. Many will doubtless be surprised at the
statement that criminal abortion is practised much more
1 Junius C. Hoag, M, D. , Medico-Legal Journal, September, 1890,
p. 117.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 295
frequently by the married than by the unmarried woman.
Here is a perversion of Nature indeed! Maternal sym-
pathy and care and tenderness are withheld, and harm is
plotted for the child by a mother who has failed in her
duty. The parents who have sworn to the obligations of
wedlock, which has for its legitimate end the perpetuation
of the species ; or the parents who, by sexual intercourse,
have consummated the recognized rites of marriage, plot
for the danger and death of their child, while the lioness
will bleed and fight for her cub to the death. The rough
hand of the uncouth savage father becomes soft to his babe,
and motherhood among all the higher animals means care,
and tenderness, and self-sacrifice, and love ; but the sexual
paraesthesia and degeneration found in a social life which
replaces ethics and religion and physiology with lust, has
given to the world the most formidably perverted and
sharp-witted creatures known to zoologists.
Abortion, as previously mentioned, is usually brought on
before the woman has recognized the active motions of the
child in her womb ; it is, therefore, most frequently done
at some time before the end of the third month, before
marked enlargement of the abdomen is noticed, and sel-
dom after the end of the fourth month. On the other hand,
it is not usually thought of until one or more menstrual
periods have been missed; for the woman who has only
passed one or two periods tries to persuade herself that the
alarm is false, and cannot recognize any of the signs of
pregnancy, except, perhaps, the "morning sickness."
The unmarried woman is not so familiar with the early
signs of pregnancy as a woman who has had a child, and
she is more apt to let the time slip by, hoping for a natural
return of her courses, until one day she unmistakably feels
the child to be alive within her, and then, after quickening,
few mothers can be found who will not regard the destruc-
tion of the child as murder. The unmarried woman also
hopes that her paramour may consent to marry her and
296 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
save her from the awful disgrace, and that the fact of her
lover being the father of her child may arouse his paternal
instincts. And, furthermore,, the unmarried woman, if
pregnant, has little opportunity of remaining in her room
or lying by for a few days, as the married woman may do,
but labors under the embarrassing necessity of doing every-
thing in her power to avert suspicion. The single woman
who contemplates an abortion usually makes the pretext of
visiting friends in a distant city, whom she knows to be in
accord with her. On account of the ignorance of unmar-
ried girls, and by reason of the difficulties which beset
them, it is believed by many physicians that fully seventy-
five to ninety per cent of the criminal abortions are com-
mitted by married women.
. But who ever heard of the law convicting a married wo-
man of this offence? Excuses for them are easy. And
yet, if we were the judges, we should more readily pardon
the despairing, seduced girl, the victim of treachery and
deceit, whose mind is depressed and often actually de-
ranged by her awful shame and sorrow, whose thoughts
now turn to a mode of relief from which she would in her
right senses recoil in horror and dismay, and whose phys-
ical and mental system is weak and prostrated a wretched
girl whose lover has proved to be a devil, whose parents
have disowned her, who stands ofttimes in her wild frenzy
by the river, meditating death, fearing the social degrada-
tion to herself and the illegitimacy of her innocent child,
which her natural instinct teaches her to love.
But if the fallen girl who is not insane has no justifica-
tion for the crime, what pretext can the married woman
give for the nullification of the miracle of motherhood?
In rare cases it may be that she is ignorant of the true
character of the act, but this can hardly be so in this en-
lightened age. The fear of childbed cannot be given as a
valid excuse, for all doctors agree that an abortion is more
dangerous than a full-time delivery. The abortion is "a
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 297
labor in miniature, at least so far as it relates to the expel-
ling organ and to the expelled product ; but not in minia-
ture in regard to the duration of the process and the at-
tendant suffering." Ambrose Jardien 3 reports that in
thirty-four cases of criminal abortion, where their history
was known, twenty -two were followed as a consequence by
death. Tardieu, the great French medico-legal authority,
states that in one hundred and sixteen cases of this class
death occurred in sixty.
Joseph Taber Johnson, M.D., says:
" It is an every-day occurrence for ladies to consult busy
gynaecologists in our large cities in regard to symptoms
which, upon inquiry, are found to date back to an unfortu-
nate abortion. It would be quite within the limits of truth
were I to state that two-thirds of the work of the gynaecolo-
gists of this age finds its chief cause in the evils discussed
by Dr. Goodell and our essayist 3 this evening. It is a sad
commentary upon the Christian civilization of the age, but
the experience of honest workers in this department of our
science would, I believe, corroborate the truth of this sad-
dening statement."
Tardieu gives as causes of death embolism, syncope
from excessive pain, and moral shock resulting from a con-
sciousness of guilt ; and to this may be added hemorrhage
and septicaemia.
Some married women give as excuses the " demands of
society," or say that they are going to take "a trip to
Europe and cannot put it off," or that they shrink from
the disfigurement of childbirth, or that they are too fond
of indolence and luxury, or that " they have not the means
to support and educate a larger family." Could they not
share what they have with the poor, innocent babe, even
though it has come as an unbidden guest?
Marvin, "Text-Book on Obstetrics," p. 294.
8 "tude medico-legale sur T Infanticide, " Paris, 1868.
J. F. Scott.
298 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
To a woman with children who would ask us to perform
an abortion on her, we would say : " Madam, let us kill one
of the children already born, if you cannot support any
more ; it will be far safer to your health to allow the babe
in your womb to go to full time and be delivered naturally,
and the crime will be precisely the same." Such a state-
ment usually drives your meaning straight home.
The Glories of Maternity. In the beginning, when all
was inorganic and chaotic, what a crime it would have been
if some evil power should have annihilated the first living
cell, a mere mass of primordial protoplasm which had been
endowed by the Creator with the principle called Life!
From that vivified protoplasmic cell, touched by the Cre-
ator's hand, have come all the phenomena of life, the total-
ity of existence; all the plants and creatures of the air,
earth, and water ; all the thousands of millions of men and
women, placed here to work out a civilization which nor-
mally points upward to love, and hope, and happiness,
and home, and heaven. As Henry Drummond ' has pointed
out, the Mother represents " the last and most elaborately
wrought pinnacle of the temple of Nature," crowning the
animal kingdom. The highest class of animals, the Mam-
malia, or those that bear teats and suckle their young, have
taken their name from them, and the mother is the type of
the highest expression of Nature.
" Is it too much to say that the one motive of organic
Nature was to make mothers? It is at least certain that
this was the chief thing she did. Ask the zoologist what,
judging from science alone, Nature aspired to from the
first; he could but answer Mammalia mothers. In as
real a sense as a factory is meant to turn out locomotives
or clocks, the machinery of Nature is designed in the last
resort to turn out mothers. You will find mothers in
lower nature at every stage of imperfection; you will see
attempts being made to get at better types; you find old
" The Ascent of Man, " p. 267 et seg.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 299
ideas abandoned and higher models coming to the front.
And when you get to the top you find the last great act was
but to present to the world a physiologically perfect type.
It is a fact which no human mother can regard without
awe, which no man can realize without a new reverence for
woman and a new belief in the higher meaning of Nature,
that the goal of the whole plant and animal kingdoms
seems to have been the creation of a family, which the very
naturalist has had to call Mammalia. " l
Descending in the scale of Nature to the lowest forms of
animal life, we observe that the young are left to hatch and
develop without maternal or paternal love or protection ; in
fact, it is doubtful if there is such a thing as love in ani-
mals lower in the scale than mammals and birds. " What
does exist, and sometimes in marvellous perfection, is care
for eggs: but that is a wholly different thing, both in its
physical and psychical aspect, from love of offspring. The
truth is, Nature so made animals in the early days that
they did not need mothers. The moment they were born
they looked after themselves, and were perfectly able to
look after themselves." 3
The young of the lower forms of life are so multitudinous
that, were they all to develop, the earth and sea would be
filled with teeming millions of them ; but only a few of the
fortunate ones reach maturity, all of them being entirely
dependent on themselves from the moment of birth. It is
only when we reach the higher forms of life that the moth-
ers even recognize their young, and for this purpose it is
necessary that the offspring shall be few in number, simi-
lar in appearance to their parents, and dependent, on ac-
count of their helplessness, on their mothers. Such is the
case with the Mammalia, in contradistinction, for instance,
to the reptiles and batrachians and fish, with their innu-
merable progeny.
1 Drummond, loc. cit. , p. 268.
Drummond, ibid., p. 269.
300 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
In the lower forms of animal life the maternal care is
limited to the depositing of the eggs in a safe place, the
young being left without parental assistance to hatch by
chance and to provide for themselves from the outset.
Parental affection is entirely wanting, since the early stages
do not resemble the mature stages, and since the mothers
often die soon after they have deposited the eggs.
It is not until we ascend in the scale of life to the birds
that we find this love and domestic happiness, and here,
except among the fowls and barnyard poultry, we find the
most intimate and lasting marriages ; and Dr. Brehm 1 says :
" Real genuine marriage can only be found among birds. "
" In birds parental affection has reached a very high de-
gree of development, not only on the mother's side, but
also on the father's. Male and female help each other to
build the nest, the former generally bringing the materials,
the latter doing the work. In fulfilling the numberless
duties of the breeding season, both birds take a share.
Incubation rests principally with the mother, but the
father, as a rule, helps his companion, taking her place
when she wants to leave the nest for a moment, or provid-
ing her with food and protecting her from every danger.
Finally, when the duties of the breeding season are over,
and the result desired is obtained, a period with new du-
ties commences. During the first few days after hatching,
most birds rarely leave their young for long, and then only
to procure food for themselves and their family. In cases
of great danger, both parents bravely defend their offspring.
As soon as the first period of helplessness is over, and the
young have grown somewhat, they are carefully taught to
shift for themselves ; and it is only when they are perfectly
capable of so doing that they leave the nest and the
parents." 3
With the advance to the Mammalia, mothers made an
1 A. E. Brehm, "Bird-Life, " Trans., p. 285.
8 Westermarck, "History of Human Marriage," p. 11.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 301
immense step forward through the very fact that their
young are more dependent, take longer to develop, and
that they must stay close to the parent. The young seeks
its mother's teats to derive nourishment, and the mother
is no less dependent on it to relieve her breasts of engorge-
ment. In this way an inexpressibly powerful affection and
endearment grows up between the two, which is the stronger
in proportion to the fewness of the offspring and the length
of the time of dependency. Such a mother will start at the
slightest cry of pain from her child ; and if danger threaten,
a maternal fury is exhibited which none can ignore with
impunity.
Of all the animals none is so tardy in its development
nor so utterly helpless in its feebleness as the human babe.
A kitten, a calf, or a colt, or a baby monkey, at six months
of age knows immeasurably more and is entirely indepen-
dent of care ; but the infant, even at a much later date than
that, is absolutely helpless and dependent for its every
want. To elaborate such a fine piece of machinery as the
Homo sapiens requires time and parental attention, and a
lengthened delay by its mother's side. It is precisely this
mutual interdependence between mother and child, and the
child's helplessness and tardy development, which are the
cause of the maternal sympathy and tenderness and watch-
fulness. The mother runs no less eagerly to the child when
it is hurt than the child goes to her ; they are in a relation-
ship of perfect trust and perfect love.
If, as Henry Drummond has so beautifully pointed out
in " The Ascent of Man," the infant has been the " tutor for
the affections" of its mother, it also has transformed man
from a savage into a loving father, who, with the mother,
concentrates his affections on the object which belongs to
both, and in loving the one he loves the other with a new
love. While among Carnivora the males sometimes eat up
the young, so that the mothers frequently have to hide them
away, it is nevertheless the rule with the Mammalia that
302 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the male shall protect and defend his family. Thus, Herr
von Koppenfells states ' that the male gorilla " spends the
night crouching at the foot of the tree, against which he
places his back, and thus protects the female and their
young, which are in the nest above, from the nocturnal
attacks of leopards."
And Savage 2 says of the gorillas that " when the male
is first seen he gives a terrific yell that resounds far and
wide through the forest. . . . The females and young at
the first cry quickly disappear; he then approaches the
enemy in great fury, pouring out his horrid cries in quick
succession." This is the function of a father that of a
protector and a food-getter.
After the consummation of the marriage by sexual inter-
course, and after the birth of the infant, there is normally,
even among gorillas and chimpanzees and orang-outangs
and savages, a sense of permanent relationship to the
mother, and a conjugal tie which binds them together. It
is a sacred thing indeed to be a mother, for the tie that
binds the child to her forever remains more intimate and
lasting than the affection for the father. It was the little
child which first taught primitive man the qualities of love
and tenderness and sympathy ; and it is the yearning for
offspring which normally compels love and marriage be-
tween the males and females of all animals. Sexual inter-
course is not intended for so trifling a purpose as that of
giving a pleasurable sensation, and the mating of the two
sexes finds its highest manifestation in this act of love.
Sexual pleasure is merely an incident in the union of the
sexes, which draws them together in order to ensure a re-
sultbirth which is attended with pain and anxieties and
prolonged responsibilities.
The highest function of a true man is to protect her
whom he loves, and to make the greatest sacrifices for her
1 Westermarck, loe. Git. , p. 14.
8 " Description of Troglodytes Gorilla, " p. 9 et seq.
CRIMINAL ABORTION. 303
and for their offspring. During the months and years
while the mother is devoting her whole mind and heart to
the rearing of his child, he is to infuse into that family
circle a fragrance of manliness.
It is man who plays the active, woman the passive part in
courtship ; and after his approach to the female his man-
hood must pledge him, by the power of a natural law, to
provide for the subsequent protection and guardianship
both of the woman and the offspring. This is a higher law
of honor than any made by the decrees of fashion or so-
called respectability.
Nature struggled up from the first primordial mass of
protoplasm, through the plants, and through the lower
forms of animal life ; up through the invertebrata and the
vertebrata, some types persisting merely as fossils, others
modified from their ancestors. Ages have been spent in the
evolution of the Mammalia, and the culmination of this in-
definitely prolonged extension of time has been the master-
piece Man, or rather the Mother. Nature has made noth-
ing superior, and Man is but the crown of Woman's
glory.
Criminal abortion is thus seen to be the most abhorrent
crime against Nature which could be conceived of, and the
man who permits the mother and her offspring to struggle
through the long and bitter years in illegitimacy, without
honoring that family relationship in the natural capacity
of a father, refusing to provide food and shelter, and crav-
enly withholding his protection, is the product of a corrupt
civilization so much below the gorillas and the sparrows
that we can only classify him as a Monster. No mother
who understands her position at the summit of Creation,
or who has any of the natural instinct of love, can connive
at the destruction of her babe, unless she be deranged,
without abdicating her lofty and holy position of sover-
eignty in Nature ; and if the dumb brutes could speak they
would plead with her to ignore public sentiment at any
304 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
cost, and to listen to the voice of instinct, oi pity, and ol
love.
Criminal abortion is the most villainous crime against
the infant, the mother, the family circle, society and Na-
ture. Except therapeutically, the destruction of this hu-
man life is absolutely indefensible. It is attended with
extreme danger to the mother's health of mind and body,
to her happiness, and to her life. It is no trifling factor
in the awful waste of human life, and is possible only in a
community which tolerates one standard of purity for men
and another for women. It is wholly irreligious and im-
moral, and is but the natural outcome of men's demand for
illegitimate sexual gratification.
/
Nephritis-^*
Pos'ferlor Ure thrifts
OrchiUs-'-'
FIG. XII. MALE GENITO-URINARY ORGANS.
Showing the principal gonorrhceal infections. Page 348.
CHAPTEK IX.
GONOBBH(EA.
MORE diligence has, perhaps, been devoted to the study
of Gonorrhoea, and especially to the discovery of its cause,
than to almost any other disease ; and one who gives to the
subject the attention which it merits cannot fail to be moved
with admiration at the toilsome laboratory work which has
been directed to the elucidation of the many problems which
it presents. The greater number of laymen, even those who
are the most cultured and highly educated, have entirely
erroneous ideas regarding its cause, nature and conse-
quences little appreciating its extreme gravity and the
terrible results which it may entail to the person who ac-
quires it and to his future wife and children who receive it
innocently.
One often hears of an otherwise intelligent person who is
reported to have said that he thought no more of having a
case of " clap" than a severe cold, but no one ever hears
that remark from a patient in the height of the attack.
The well-informed physician knows that its consequences
may be most disastrous to the health and happiness of the
patient himself, even endangering life ; and that it may bring
into his home circle the doom of a partial or complete ster-
ility, as well as the gloom of blindness, especially to his
offspring. The germs of the disease usually invade the
tissues of the genital zone, and may lie dormant in them
for long periods of time, to recrudesce, or revive into activ-
ity, after any sexual excess, or debauch, or strain, or im-
pairment of vitality of the tissues affected.
This serious ailment may remain slumbering for years,
308 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
after an apparent cure, causing few or no symptoms which
are appreciable to the infected sufferer, and then break out
into a number of subacute attacks which are but recurrences
of the original one.
In the male the disease very commonly causes a morbid
contraction of the urethra, " stricture, " which is always a
source of distress and danger, often leading to fatal com-
plications from bladder and kidney affections. More gen-
erally it causes painful conditions, such as abscesses and
" swelled testicles, " the latter of which is a fruitful source
of sterility in men. Even the mildest case of gonorrhoea
may be followed by any or all of the grave disorders.
In the female its effects are most horrible and appalling,
leading, as in the male, to severe bladder and kidney in-
flammation, and in addition, owing to the anatomical dif-
ferentiations of sex, to inflammations of the vagina and
uterus, the formation of extensive pus collections in the
Fallopian tubes and ovaries, and to peritonitis. The larg-
est class of patients entering hospitals for the diseases of
women, and requiring the severest operations known to
surgery, come on account of the ravages of gonorrhoea it
being by no means an unusual thing for women to die from
its effects or to sink into a condition of incurable invalid-
ism ; and, as a rule, they have acquired it innocently from
their impure husbands, who are envenomed with "latent
gonorrhoea. "
Furthermore, the microbes, which are the cause of gon-
orrhoea, are in some cases uncontrollable by remedies and
become profusely scattered throughout the system, causing
a constitutional infection accompanied by the most malig-
nant and dangerous inflammations, such as "gonorrhceal
rheumatism" the severest of all types of rheumatism
and various other inflammations of joints, tendons, and
fibrous tissues. The lining membrane of the heart, the
endocardium, sometimes shares in this virulent process,
and grave forms of heart disease are in this way initiated ;
GONORRHOEA. 309
and further, the meninges, or membranous coverings of the
brain and spinal cord, may be affected and cause serious
and even fatal consequences, while the pernicious effects of
the organisms may produce the most deleterious results
also on the medulla oblongata, the kidneys, the pericar-
dium, the large veins, etc.
Thus this disease of gonorrhoea, or "clap," which is re-
garded by unenlightened men as of little moment, is seen
to be portentous in its possibilities, even to the extent of
becoming a dangerous constitutional infection ; though, as
a rule, it remains localized at the area of its initial en-
trance, becoming less and less virulent by degrees, though
never characterized by a single element that is not grave.
These facts are a terra incognita to the laity ; and even some
doctors, who are behind the enlightenment of the times,
make the mistake of regarding the disease as trivial, until
a sad experience teaches them otherwise.
A very conservative authority 1 says in his standard text-
book:
" When we consider the vast range of pathological con-
ditions which gonorrhoea may cause or lead to, we are cer-
tainly warranted in asserting that it is, taken as a whole,
on of the most formidable and far-reaching infections by
which the human race is attacked."
And Finger, a great German authority on gonorrhoea,
says : a
"Gonorrhoea of the male urethra is probably the most
frequent disease with which the practical physician has to
deal. With it he usually begins his early practice, and
until the end it causes him many anxious hours. Frequent
as is the disease, it is equally ungrateful as regards a pos-
itive and radical cure."
There is no doubt whatever that this accursed disease
has been known ever since history began. The fifteenth
1 Taylor, "Venereal Diseases," p. 56.
9 " Gonorrhoea and its Complications, " English translation, p. 23.
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
chapter of Leviticus is taken up with an evident descrip-
tion of this affection, and explicit directions are therein
given for the regulation of those so infected with " unclean-
ness" in their " issues" ; and the literature of the ancient
Greeks and Eomans, as recorded by Hippocrates, Her-
odotus, Pliny, Juvenal, Celsus, Galen, and many others,
contains numerous unmistakable references to it and its
contagiousness.
In the Middle Ages it raged, and continues to this day
to be, as Finger says above, " probably the most frequent
disease with which the practical physician has to deal."
Within the past few years, i.e., the last two decades,
there has been a complete and astonishing modification of
the ideas which were formerly held regarding this disease
and its dangers, due to the perfection of bacteriological
science, with the result that it is now recognized as a social
danger of the greatest malignity. Seemingly trifling in its
initial stages, it nevertheless tends to remain localized in
the genital tract, causing in many instances, sometimes
slowly and haltingly, sometimes rapidly, an irreparable
damage to the procreative organs, to the bladder and kid-
neys, to the eyes, the heart, the joints, and various other
tissues of the body.
In every case where a woman is infected with gonorrhoea
she is in danger, not only of being rendered a permanent
invalid and barren, but also of losing her life from perito-
nitis and septicaemia.
We shall ultimately see the ruin which is visited upon
innocent women by husbands who years before had con-
tracted a gonorrhoea from which they never were cured ; for
only those doctors who are skilled in microscopy and bac-
teriological technique are in any way competent to say
whether the process is still latent. or not. A case is far
from cured when the discharge of pus is no longer visible,
though all patients and many physicians rest content when
this result is accomplished.
GONORRHOEA. 311
Gonorrhoea, being essentially a local disease due to defi-
nite micro-organisms, is " curable" at any stage, though it
must be pointed out that the word " cure" is objectionable
to many physicians in relation to almost all morbid proc-
esses, for a restitutio ad integrum, or restoration to the
previous condition, is rarely attained. "Believed" is a
better word than "cured," for the germs can indeed be de-
stroyed, with perhaps little damage to the tissues ; but in
those instances where there are several fresh infections,
each attack is modified in intensity and results by the fact
that the tissues have been so impaired that the condition
becomes more and more favorable for the formation of scar
tissue. In other words, gonorrhoea alters the "state of
receptivity" of the urethral mucous membrane so that it is
rendered a favorable soil for the growth of other harmful
organisms.
A majority of the cases, however, are " cured" in the or-
dinary acceptation of the term.
Venus was the Latin name for the "Goddess of Love,"
while the same deity was identified by the Greeks as Aphro-
dite, the patroness of lust. Her name is used in medicine
for things relating to sexual love and intercourse; hence
the terms venereal and aphrodisiac pertaining to love or
venery.
Venereal diseases are such as are intimately associated
with the gratification of the sexual passion, and are gonor-
rhoea, chancroid, and syphilis ; and of these gonorrhoea is
the most distinctly venereal, since it is rarely acquired in
any other way than by sexual intercourse, while the others
frequently are.
Ricord, Ihe great Parisian authority on venereal diseases,
claimed that eight hundred out of every thousand men who
lived in large cities had at some time in their lives suffered
with gonorrhoea.
Gonorrhoea, as previously stated, is probably the most
frequent disease which requires treatment; and it stands
312 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
near the top in the amount of harm it does to the human
race.
In contradistinction to syphilis, it is essentially a local
disease and does not taint the blood and thus transmit
itself to one's posterity. We have said that the germs of
the disease sometimes become scattered throughout the
whole body, causing grave constitutional effects, and that
the wife and child may be afflicted; but these facts must
not mislead one into the error of regarding gonorrhoea as a
disease which taints the blood.
The gonorrhceal infection is a typically virulent or venom-
ous process, due to the growth of a minute vegetable organ-
ism the " gonococcus" of which we shall presently speak.
Gonorrhoea can develop only by inoculation with these
gonococci, which are usually conveyed in the mucous or
purulent discharge from another infected person.
It is usually situated in the sexual organs of the male
and female ; the latter sex being the chief source of its trans-
mission, while the male sex is more frequently infected the
reason for this being that men are more frequently impure,
and because a comparatively small proportion of woman,
kind cater to the lewd passions of men.
The main source of gonorrhoea is coitus with a woman
so affected, and it is a conditio sine qua non that one in-
dividual can contract the disease only from another who
has the malady.
Gonorrhoea is termed by physicians a " specific urethri-
tis," by which is meant a virulent or poisonous inflamma-
tion of the urethra, in contradistinction to the "simple
urethritis, " l which is an inflammatory condition simulat-
ing the specific form, but comparatively trivial. Not every
case of urethritis, or inflammation in the urethra, is gonor-
rhoea. Thus, a man may have a urethritis develop after a
pure intercourse with his wife, if she has an acrid dis-
! The termination itis is used by pathologists to signify an
inflammation of any organ to the name of which it is suffixed.
GONORRHOEA. 313
charge or is menstruating, but it is nonsense to believe that
one can contract gonorrhoea from another person who has
not gonorrhoea.
As explanatory of the above a case recently came to the
notice of the author, where a respectable and pure man
married and took a wedding trip of several weeks' dura-
tion. Upon reaching Washington he applied for medical
advice in an agony of mind, saying that he had an inflam-
mation in the urethra, and believing that he had acquired
gonorrhoea from his wife, for he had been with no other
woman. The case was satisfactorily cleared up by the
diagnosis, aided by the microscope, which made it possi-
ble to assure him that he was suffering from a " simple" or
"non-infective urethritis," and not from gonorrhoea. The
man then acknowledged that he had insisted on intercourse
with his wife, a few days before, in spite of her disapproval
and warning that she was menstruating.
The above case is mentioned in order to allow no married
man to wrongfully blame his wife if he chance to get some
of her irritating and acrid discharges into his urethra.
She and he are then both blameless in their constancy, and
the affair is trivial. This " simple urethritis" is not severe
and is no worse than a " cold in the head."
Gonorrhoea is what is called a "specific disease," i.e., it
is produced by a special or distinctly determined cause, the
gonococcus, which has distinctive characteristics of its own.
The term is derived from two Greek words pv9," semen,"
and />Vw, to "flow," but its etymology is erroneous and the
word is pardonable only on account of its antiquity.
The gonorrhceal process may attack any mucous or serous
surface ; for instance the mucous membrane of the urethra,
vagina, uterus, eye, mouth, nose, ear, anus, but of course
it usually attacks the urethra in the male, and in the fe-
male the urethra, vagina, uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries
and peritoneum.
The chronic form of gonorrhoea, which may last for
314 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
months or years, is termed "gleet." This word, however,
is rarely employed in scientific phraseology.
Gonorrhoaa of course may attack individuals of either
sex at any period of life from infancy to extreme old age, if
any of the poisonous substance is planted on a mucous
membrane in any way whatsoever. Except in rare instances,
which are either accidental, or unnatural, accursed and exe-
crable, one sex derives it from the other.
It may be, and often is, carried by the fingers, or soiled
linen, or towels, and then usually affects the mucous mem-
brane of the eye; but in the vast majority of cases it is
contracted by direct infection during impure intercourse.
The most dangerous women are those who are most ex-
posed to the acquisition of the disease by the bestowal of
their favors on the greatest number of men, and those who
practise prostitution clandestinely.
Disgusting as it is, the reader must share in the knowl-
edge held by the profession of the depths of infamy to
which the unbridled gratification of the sexual instinct may
lead.
Gonorrhoea of the mouth is occasionally contracted by
the beastly and unnatural perversion of buccal intercourse,
but the cases, of which there are not a few, are too loath-
some to dwell upon.
Coitus per rectum sometimes conveys the disease to that
region, and many well-authenticated cases of rectal gonor-
rhoea have been reported, usually, but not always, from
sodomy.
Winslow " reports a case where a boy in a Baltimore in-
stitution contracted urethral gonorrhoea while out on leave,
and by pederasty, or rectal coitus, spread the contagion
to ten other boys, who consequently suffered from rectal
gonorrhoea. J. A. Murray 3 reports a case of gonorrhoea
1 " Report of an Epidemic of Gonorrhea Contracted from Rectal
Coition," Medical News, August 14, 1886.
8 Medical News, March 7, 1896.
GONORRHCEA. 315
of the rectum where the innocent wife of an innocent hus-
band contracted the disease by using in her bathroom a
rectal syringe which had just before been used by a ser-
vant-girl who confessed to having gonorrhoea for giving
herself a vaginal injection. Many similar cases are re-
corded. Gonorrhoea of the rectum causes great pain, a
constant desire to go to the closet, agonizing stools and
painful urination, with purulent and bloody discharges
from the rectum.
Etiology, or an Account of the Cause and Origin of Gonor-
rhoea. A widespread belief is prevalent, even among a large
class of intelligent laymen, that gonorrhoea and syphilis
are closely related; but the two diseases are entirely dis-
tinct.
The modern scientific impetus to medicine has forever
put an end to all doubts regarding this.
In 1879 Neisser, of Breslau, discovered an organism, or
micrococcus, which he found constantly and invariably in
the pus discharge of gonorrhoea of the generative organs
and gonorrhal conjunctivitis ; this organism he named the
"gonococcus," and scientists now call it the " gonococcus of
Neisser."
Gonorrhoea is therefore distinctly proved to be a miwobic
disease, having for its sole cause this minute vegetable
" gonococcus, " just as phthisis has been proved to be due
to the " tubercle bacillus, " and as diphtheria, typhoid fever,
erysipelas, anthrax, etc., are caused each by its own pecu-
liar and distinctive organism.
The gonococcus is one of the largest of the vegetable mi-
cro-organisms which cause disease, but nevertheless it is
exceeding minute. The organism can be seen with a micro-
scope which magnifies five hundred diameters, but it is more
satisfactory to employ an oil-immersion lens which has an
amplification of from one thousand to twelve hundred di-
ameters. When seen unstained it has a peculiar pearl-like
sheen, and a quick, rotatory motion, but in order to observe
316 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
it satisfactorily, it is necessary, in addition to the higli-
power magnification, to stain it with an aniline dye. The
organism measures 0.8 to 1.6 micromillimeters, or -^Vrs to
T3Yfr2T f an inch. Thegonococci are always found in pairs
and are thence called " diplococci, " and each diplococcus, or
pair of organisms which are couplecl together, resembles in
shape a French roll, or coffee-bean. Furthermore their
"grouping" is characteristic, as they are never found in
chains, but always in small clusters or clumps, and the
number of the organisms is usually divisible by four.
As is well known to most persons, a minute quantity of
yeast fungus, saccliaromyces cerevisice, added to dough,
causes it to "leaven," or " rise," by fermentation, that effect
being due to an enormous increase in the number of yeast
cells within a short time; so also if a few gonococci are
implanted on a mucous membrane, they rapidly multiply
in a manner peculiar to these bacterial organisms by
" cleaving" or dividing in a geometrical ratio into countless
other " daughter" cells. All this would occur within a few
hours' time. Thus, one gonococcus cleaves into two; these
again subdivide so as to form four ; and these again further
split up into eight, sixteen, thirty -two, sixty-four, and so
on until countless thousands are soon propagated.
These gonococci, like other bacteria, have a great affinity
for aniline dyes, such as methyl violet, fuchsin, gentian
violet, and methyl blue, but they lose this stain readily
when dipped into alcohol and acids according to " Gram's
method," the details oi which would be intelligible only to
a microscopist.
Suffice it to say that their staining in the aniline dyes,
and decolorization by Gram's method^ is a valuable
means of distinguishing them from other organisms.
The mucous membrane of the male and female genitalia,
and that of the eye, furnish the best possible "soil," or
medium for their culture, a constant, warm temperature,
moisture, and fluids upon which the organism thrives.
GONORRHCEA. 317
These gonococci, after their proliferation upon the tis-
sues, set up a virulent inflammation, soon resulting in the
formation of pus, which pours out from the affected parts.
In the interior of the pus cells will be seen microscopically,
after staining reagents have been employed, innumerable
colonies of gonoccocci, which multiply so rapidly that they
eventually burst open the pus-cells from over-distention.
In the acute stages of gonorrhoea there is no difficulty in
recognizing them with the microscope, in the pus discharge,
but in the chronic stages they may be much harder to find,
and perhaps may not be found at all in some of the speci-
mens examined.
In cases of old-standing gonorrhoea where the gonococci
cannot be found microscopically, they frequently again
come into evidence if the patient indulge in excessive
venery, or in drinking alcoholic liquors, or in excessive ex-
ercise. As a rule it is not difficult to diagnose a case of
gonorrhoea where there is a history of an impure inter-
course and a pus-like discharge, but the determination of
the disease is absolutely confirmed by the finding of gono-
cocci in the pus discharge.
Remember, then, (a) that gonococci are the cause of
gonorrhoea, because they are invariably found in the pus
discharge of clap, and never are found in diseases which
are not gonorrhoeal ; (b) that contamination with pus which
does not contain gonococci never produces gonorrhoea,
while pus containing gonococci does; (c) that the gono-
cocci may be conveyed by any vehicle, but that infection is
almost always due to impure intercourse.
Signs , Symptoms and Mode of Onset of Gonorrhoea.
Gonorrhoea, like all virulent processes, e.g., small-pox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, etc., has a period
of incubation, of invasion, advance, persistence, decline and
convalescence; only in this disease, as in syphilis, the
period of convalescence is frequently vei*y much prolonged.
Every individual who contracts any specific disease has
818 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
a definite road to go over, which he must pass, willy-
nilly.
For illustration let us take a country in which table-
lands or plateaus exist, where the top of the mountain is
occupied by an extent of nearly level land instead of a
peak. As one advances toward this mountain the level
plain represents health; the first foot-hills represent the
invasion of the disease ; the abrupt ascent of the mountain
represents the advance of the disease, and the plateau on
top its persistence : then the descent of the mountain repre-
sents the decline of the disease, the foot-hills on the other
side convalescence, and the broad plan farther on health
regained.
Travellers make this journey with varying degrees of
comfort and celerity some on mule-back, some with
guides who pull them up with ropes, some walking alone,
and some carrying heavy packs. In a corresponding man-
ner the diseased patient has a difficult or easy experience
according to his constitution and proclivities acquired by
habit, the skill of the doctor's treatment, and the virulence
of the attack. But once having set out on the mountainous
journey, there is no turning back at any price.
Most of the severe diseases are accidental and beyond
control ; but gonorrhoea, syphilis, and chancroid are elective
diseases, which the patient decides that he can run the risk
of acquiring "for the fun of the thing," just as the moun-
tain climber ascends the Matterhorn from choice and not
necessity.
Climbing the Matterhorn, however, is far safer for the
majority who make that trip never suffer harm, while the
impure man practically never escapes acquiring disease
sooner or later.
Let us, with our telescopes, observe the traveller on this
rough and dangerous journey, refusing to follow him until
we see how the parties who take the trip appear at the
other side.
GONORRHOEA. 319
A fine, healthy young man, fit to be a husband and
father, heedlessly decides that he will take his chances of
escaping disease. In a large number of instances he is
bitten upon his first experimental trial, only to find himself
a sacrificial sin-offering on the altar of Yenus, a mark for
the shafts of ridicule from his "friends," and a shamefaced
attendant at the doctor's office, remorseful and repentant,
but nevertheless compelled to take this difficult journey in
common with the coarse and the vulgar and the dissolute.
His punishment may be syphilis or chancroid, but let us
suppose that he has acquired gonorrhoea.
After the impure intercourse there elapses the period of
incubation, between the introduction of the virus into the
body and the commencement of the disease. This incuba-
tion period, which is occupied in the maturation of the
gonococci, may make itself evident at any time from two
to fourteen days after the impure cohabitation, though it
usually manifests itself in from three to five days. The
reason why this period of incubation varies is that some
are naturally less susceptible than others, as we know to
be the case in many diseases ; that in some cases the gono-
cocci are in such overwhelming numbers as to rapidly over-
power the tissues, while in another case there may be com-
paratively few organisms ; and, again, that the duration of
the impure exposure modifies the time required for incuba-
tion, as does also the fact of the vital forces having or not
having been rendered less resistive by too much alcoholic
indulgence, or by any cause which influences the vulner-
ability of the tissues.
The gonococci are implanted during coitus either within
the urethra or on the lips of the meatus. This being a
favorable soil for their growth, they rapidly develop and
spread up the canal of the urethra, partly by invasion and
partly by capillary attraction.
The onset of gonorrhoea is usually accompanied by a
series of mild general symptoms, i.e., the whole system ia
320 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
affected, though the disease, except in rare cases, is a local
one. The patient, at the beginning of the attack, suffers
with chilliness, a rise of temperature, loss of appetite, and
mental depression. Circles form under the eyes and the
complexion becomes sallow. Sleep is disturbed, partly on
account of mental anguish, and partly by morbidly in-
creased sexual desire with painful erections. Then during
the next two weeks the gonorrhoeal process increases in
severity, reaching its acme, in a typical case, in the third
week, after which the symptoms decline, and at the end of
five or six weeks the patient may no longer notice any in-
dications, and may consider himself cured, though this is
far from the actual fact unless the course of the disease has
been modified by the most skilful treatment. At the end
of the period of incubation, i.e., usually from three to five
days after the impure intercourse, certain prodromal symp-
toms are first noticed, such as a slight tickling sensation at
the orifice of the urethra, reddening of the lips of the
meatus, and the exudation of a tenacious, sticky, grayish
fluid which glues its lips together. Sometimes these
symptoms are severe, sometimes mild. Usually after the
lapse of two or three days, during which this secretion is
poured out, there is an intense burning sensation felt, which
is worse on urination ; this is called ardor urince.
During this prodromal stage sensitive patients usually
exhibit symptoms of depression of spirits, lassitude, and
loss of appetite, chiefly on account of anxiety of mind and
fear of impending gonorrhoea.
After the prodromal symptoms have lasted from two to
eight days, there then comes the acute, ex florid stage, which
is accompanied by the classical symptoms of heat, pain,
redness and swelling "color, dolor, rubor, et tumor." The
drop or two of grayish fluid which was first noticed at the
meatus now increases in amount and becomes converted
into a milky or creamy pus. At first the redness is con-
fined to the margins at the orifice of the urethra; but this
GONORRHOEA. 321
soon spreads until often the whole glans penis, or head of
the organ, and sometimes even the whole penis, is enor-
mously swollen and exceedingly painful.
Patients with a tight or long foreskin are liable to suffer
more, since the tissues which compose this structure are of
such a nature that they are liable to swell to an enormous
degree and to retain the irritating pus secretion beneath
them. In some cases the foreskin is so much swollen that
it cannot be drawn back, and then the surgeon is compelled
to slit it up in order to liberate the pent-up secretion.
Yery early in the acute stage, as a rule, the lymphatic
glands in the groins become swollen and tender, and one
can often trace, from the glans penis to the groins, the red
and swollen lymphatic vessels which convey the poison to
them.
The discharge at about the beginning of the second week
becomes thick, creamy, profuse, purulent, and often blood-
tinged. It pours out so freely from the urethra day and
night, in the form of large, heavy drops, that it soils the
genitals and clothing of the patient and necessitates the
wearing of a protective dressing over the penis.
Gonorrhoea begins in the anterior part of the urethra,
but in from eighty to ninety per cent of cases travels down
the canal until almost its whole length is in an intense
state of inflammation. In this event, i.e., when the inflam-
mation has spread down the urinary passage, even the sub-
stance of the penis, as well as the urethra, will be acutely
inflamed and swollen, and the patient then finds himself in
the undignified position of having an absorbing interest in
his genital apparatus to the exclusion of all else.
It is important to understand that the urethra is a tube
or rather a potential tube, for its walls lie in apposition
when not distended by urine with a calibre of about the
size of an ordinary lead-pencil, extending a distance of
eight or nine inches from the bladder to the exterior, and
serving as a passage, or conduit, for the urine and semen.
21
322 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
So it is evident that the result of a severe inflammatory
swelling of its walls, and of the surrounding tissues, will
be to narrow very materially the calibre of this tube.
Urination, consequently, is now a matter of acute pain
and even agony, giving a sensation as though a red-hot
iron had been passed down the urethra, or as if the urine
were scalding the canal. This is due partly to the in-
creased acidity of the urine, but chiefly to the forcible dis-
tention of the inflamed and suppurating canal. In such
a case the patient exerts every effort to pass his water
slowly, and to effect this he holds his breath, relaxes the
abdominal muscles, and sometimes even tries to stop the
stream of urine. Often there is a spasm of the compressor
urethra muscle, so that strangury, or an inability to pass
urine, is caused, which condition may require relief by the
passage of a catheter. Owing to the swelling of the ure-
thral mucous membrane and the resulting narrowing of the
canal, the stream of urine becomes very thin, escaping in
drops, or in a twisted, sputtering and weak manner, while
sometimes it dribbles away drop by drop involuntarily.
In those instances where the inflammation has not spread
along the whole canal, these symptoms are not so pro-
nounced, their severity varying much in different cases,
being usually more acute in a first attack than in sub-
sequent ones, unless there has been an interval of several
years between the infections. There is always a muco-
purulent secretion, the abundance and pus-like character
of which affords a good criterion of the severity of the at-
tack. The urethra being freely supplied with a network of
capillary blood-vessels, there is frequently, on account of
the inflammation, a trickling away of a few drops of blood
with the discharge, giving the linen a characteristic san-
guineous stain.
The amount of the pus discharged is greatest during the
night and toward morning, and less during the day, partly
because the patient usually urinates only once or twice
GONORRHCEA. 323
during the night, while during the day he performs this
function at frequent intervals, and thus washes away the
discharge with the stream of urine, not permitting it to
collect in abundance. In addition to this he suffers at
night from the injurious effects of exercise during the day.
During this inflammatory stage of the disease the patient
should be kept confined to bed in order to give the parts as
much rest as possible, though it is often impossible to ac-
complish this without his compromising himself, unless he
takes a trip away from home " for the benefit of his health,"
or on some other pretext.
The acute stage usually reaches its worst during the
second week, and then still more serious troubles super-
vene. Almost the entire length of the urethra is now
swollen and inflamed ; it is tender upon pressure and there
is a feeling of anguish in the testicles, which is rendered
worse by walking or jarring.
A patient in this stage can usually be recognized by a
careful observer ; when he sits down he does so with the
greatest deliberation, in such a manner as to protect his
perinseum from pressure ; if he crosses his legs, it is done
with the greatest care and with the assistance of his
hands. His inguinal glands are swollen and tender, and
he suffers with pain in the back. He is now really ill and
bed is the proper place for him. As in every disease
where there is suppuration, his temperature rises, he has
chills, and is pale, worried, anxious, without appetite, and
constipated. Whatever comfort the patient may have dur-
ing the day is apt to turn into torture during the night.
In the earlier days and nights of the stage of acute ure-
thritis he has a morbidly increased sexual desire and
increased ability for copulation. These symptoms are
usually provoked by the warmth of the bed, but even in-
dependently of this the symptoms are aggravated at night.
So great is the increase of the voluptuous sensations that
patients often seek relief by masturbation or fornication.
324 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Many of them, feeling that they must have relief, visit the
brothels in spite of the known dangers to the women, and
to those who use them afterward. It is well for men to
lay this point to heart, since a most dangerous class of
poisoned and venomous men are going about, unrestrained
by the law, with uncontrollable passions.
These voluptuous sensations, at first quite agreeable,
early become eminently unpleasant, and the sexual irrita-
tion soon causes the patient the most aggravated suffering.
Very frequent and surprisingly vigorous erections occur
and the penis becomes distorted, much to the mental an-
guish and chagrin of the patient, for every man thinks more
of the normal shape of his private organs than of any other
part of the body. The penis is sometimes forcibly drawn
against the abdomen by the powerful erections, and
frequently undergoes a series of most painful spasmodic
convulsions. With these erections there are apt to be
frequent debilitating and involuntary ejaculations of semen,
and these erections and ejaculations are sometimes so
intense that they cause rupture of the inflamed and con-
gested urethra, so that blood is mingled with the pus and
semen. This variety is called "Eussian clap."
Sometimes the erections are so strong that they last for
hours at a time, and in some cases there is a symptom,
called chordee, in which the penis becomes arched like a
bow, with the concavity downward.
In this condition the virile organ becomes rigid and bent,
partly on account of an increased flow of blood to one part
of the penis corpus cavernosum which makes it less ex-
tensible than the carpus spongiosum, and partly owing to a
spasm of the longitudinal muscular fibres in the urethra.
Chordee, though not occurring in the majority of cases,
is a most distressing symptom, sometimes so maddening
the sufferer by the discomfort and pain that he strives to
"break the cord" by straightening the penis forcibly, or by
laying the distorted organ on a book and giving it a smart
GONORRHCEA. 325
blow. This manoeuvre, however, is exceedingly dangerous,
since it is apt to cause a tear in the urethra which may be
followed by a serious hemorrhage and which will surely
result in stricture ; and cases are reported where death has
followed from gangrene of the penis, or from bladder and
kidney infection, or from general blood poisoning.
The patient's nights are full of misery ; the warmth of
the bed and the state of sleep promote the tendency to pain-
ful erections and chordee, and as soon as the patient has
awakened and relieved himself of one attack by walking on
the cold floor and the use of cooling applications, he falls
asleep only to be re-awakened by the same occurrence time
after time. His nights are so much disturbed that he rises
in the morning tired and dejected, and unfit for the duties
of the day.
There is a discharge of greenish often blood-tinged
pus during this acute stage of the disease. The discharge
of pus from the urethra is often surprisingly profuse, but
this is not to be wondered at when one considers the exten-
sive amount of tissue involved.
Every case of acute septic urethritis, or clap, does not
run precisely this course, but this is a typical description
of a typical case. Proper treatment of course modifies the
severity of the symptoms.
In some cases the voiding of urine causes only moderate
suffering, and the erections are painless and cause little
discomfort; but every individual who elects to acquire
gonorrhoea makes himself liable to the severest and most
dangerous forms, and but little comfort can be derived
from having a mild attack for the remote complications
may become apparent months or years afterward, and the
future wife may be rendered an incurable invalid.
In a typical case of gonorrhoea, to sum up, there is a
period of incubation, usually of three to five days' dura-
tion, during which there are no symptoms by which the
disease can be recognized; this is followed by a prodromal
326 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
stage of about two days' duration in which the first evi-
dences of symptoms appear. The process increases in
severity for about fourteen days and reaches its most acute
stage during the third week ; but then, if the patient has
received proper care as to rest, diet, and hygiene, the
severity of this acute stage becomes modified at the end of
the second or beginning of the third week after the acute
symptoms developed.
At the end of two or three weeks more the symptoms
may disappear, and in an uncomplicated and fortunate
case the entire process would last from five to six weeks.
As recovery begins, the discharge becomes more scanty,
less greenish, and thinner in consistence, and eventually,
under favorable circumstances, becomes a grayish muco-
pus which stains the shirt and bed-linen and glues together
the lips of the meatus.
The foregoing description applies only to gonorrhoea of
the anterior urethra, where the process always originates
and luxuriates for the first few weeks ; if the disease spread to
the posterior urethra, as it does in a large majority of cases,
the results are much more serious, as will later appear.
By attention to all the rules of hygiene and by proper
treatment, acute anterior urethritis uncomplicated clap
may, under the most fortunate circumstances, be recovered
from in from six to eight weeks, but such an event is the
exception and not the rule.
After the acute stage has lasted from one to three months,
it passes into the declining stage, which may drag along for
many long months more, or even for years.
In the declining stage there is not usually much pain,
the chief symptom being a more or less copious discharge
which soils the patient's shirt and bed-linen, but all through
this declining stage the recovery is apt to be interrupted by
severe relapses, especially if he take active exercise, be-
come constipated, catch cold, or indulge in excesses in
Fenere et in Baccho.
GONORRHOEA. 327
These relapses are regarded by many patients as fresh
attacks of gonorrhoea, and it is to these that one refers
when he says that he heeds a case of clap as little as a bad
cold ; and from these relapses quacks and charlatans make
a great reputation, for the discharge is readily checked by
slightly astringent injections. If, however, the urethra
were to be examined by the urethroscope in the hands of
an expert, areas of inflammatory tissue would be seen in
the deeper parts, although there might be no external dis-
charge whatever.
In reality, in these cases, the patient never has recovered,
but healing is taking place with relapses whose intensity
grows gradually less and less severe with each succeeding
attack. One is more apt to suffer set-backs if he be of a
weak constitution, if he have previously suffered from
syphilis, if he have pollutions, if he indulge in coitus, or
in alcoholics, or take too active exercise, or spicy food, or
if he be constipated. Should he be so unfortunate as to
acquire any other simultaneous illness, he will also very
probably suffer a relapse. Of course, many cases of acute
gonorrhoea vary a good deal in the intensity and in the
duration of the different stages from the preceding typical
description ; for instance, sometimes the period of incuba-
tion and the prodromal stage last longer and are less
severe, while in other instances all the symptoms develop
more rapidly and are intensified, so as to be even more
severe than what has been depicted.
Sometimes the amount of pus poured out is small in
amount and there is not much discomfort, so that an un-
observant patient might miss the fact that he had an at-
tack of gonorrhoea, while in other cases, there may be,
in addition to the worst symptoms already described, in-
voluntary pollutions, gonorrhoeal rheumatism, gonorrhceal
ophthalmia or conjunctivitis, or gonorrhoeal inflammation
of the brain or heart, ending fatally.
Kemember that even the mildest case of clap may result
328 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
disastrously by spreading to the deep, or posterior portion
of the urethra, causing any of these complications, or
stricture, prostatitis and sterility. It is erroneous to sup-
pose that gonorrhoea limits itself to the anterior urethra.
The whole extent of the urethra becomes involved in the
large majority of instances.
All the symptoms heretofore described have been quite
apparent to the patient, but, in order to follow the course
of the disease accurately and scientifically, it is necessary
for the physician to make frequent microscopical examina-
tions of the discharges and of the urine.
During the height of the attack the microscope reveals
pus corpuscles and gonococci in enormous numbers, and the
treatment will be largely directed by their persistence or
decline. By degrees the pus cells and gcnococci become
less numerous ; but the latter are very liable to recrudesce,
or crop up afresh with renewed activity, months after their
apparent disappearance.
In the early stages there will be noticed in the urine nu-
merous little rice-like bodies, resembling fluffy threads or
balls; these are called "clap-threads" (Tripperfaden by the
Germans) , and consist of pus and exfoliated epithelial cells
held together by mucus, for which the careful physician
must look with his microscope, day by day, until they
have entirely disappeared.
The accurate and systematic observation of the urine
affords one of the most reliable means of information in
regard to the favorable or discouraging progress of the
case, but the processes are far too technical in character
for the layman to grasp. Suffice it to say that by an intel-
ligent and careful daily examination of the urine the well-
equipped physician can conclude as to the progress of the
case, even without questioning the patient in regard to his
feelings and sensations. Unfortunately relapses in gonor'
rhoea are very common, and clap-threads and pus-cells are
often present in the urine for months and years, during all
GONORRHOEA. 329
of which time the patient is, in very truth, a poisonous
animal and exceedingly dangerous to any one with whom
he may cohabit.
" It cannot be repeated too often : clap is a dangerous
disease ! Aside from the many complications and conse-
quences which it may bring to the persons affected, it can
make the patient hopelessly blind in twenty-four hours.
These facts alone, among a multitude of others equally
alarming, which affect the patient's self-love, being duly
impressed upon his mind, we may go a step farther. A
disppearance of all external evidence of the disease by no
means makes the ex-patient unable to cause his wife's
death. Lurking in the crypts, follicles and glands of his
urethra may be gonococci. In the sexual relation these
murderous bacteria are wholly or partially emptied out.
Enough of them may be projected to pass with the semen
to the regions where a future human being should be given
life, and the prospective mother then has within her the
fungus of destruction. "
The average physician tells the patient that he is cured
and allows him to pass out of his care far too early ; and
the great majority of patients, weary of the expense and
eager to believe themselves free from a filthy disease, as-
sume the responsibility of defining when they are cured by
the assertion that it is all over when there is no discharge
visible at the meatus.
The use of internal remedies alone, such as are prescribed
by many physicians and druggists, is not in any event ade-
quate to cure gonorrhoea; with these must be combined
irrigations and applications to the diseased areas.
Acute Posterwr Urethritis. In a typical case of uncom-
plicated gonorrhoea the disease is confined to the anterior
part of the urethra, but in eighty to ninety per cent of
1 Ferd. C. Valentine, M.D., Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases,
New York School of Clinical Medicine ; Medico-Surgical Bulletin,
October 1, 1895.
330 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
cases the inflammatory process invades the posterior ure-
thra, and forms an ominous complication.
" It follows, therefore, that the opinion heretofore enter-
tained, that gonorrhosa, as a rule, limits itself to the ante-
rior urethra, localizing itself chiefly at the bulbous portion,
is wholly incorrect, since the reverse is true namely, that,
as a rule, the infection spreads in between eighty and ninety
per cent of cases through the entire length of the urethra,
and only exceptionally in a minimum of cases is limited
to the anterior urethra." '
The symptoms are not usually noticeable when the dis-
ease spreads backward to the deeper portion of the ure-
thra, and it is important to remember that this posterior
urethritis causes the discharge from the anterior urethra
to cease, thus misleading the careless physician, or drug-
gist, or patient into the momentous error of supposing that
a cure has been effected.
The blame for this attaches partly to the patient and
partly to the physician; the former will not heed advice,
will not rest, and will often continue in the indulgence of
his sexual passions ; and it is the plain truth that a large
number of the latter treat clap in a routine and harmful
way. In the typical case heretofore described, the reader
will remember that improvement sets in after the third
week, or acme of the process ; but this is a critical time
and a change for the worse, with ominous symptoms, may
occur.
Recovery is then very slow and the conditions are favor-
able for the development of stricture, epididymitis, in-
flammation of the testicles, bladder, seminal vesicles and
prostate gland. In posterior urethritis there is a profuse
suppuration going on without the patient's knowledge; for
the pus does not pour out of the end of the urethra as it
does in anterior urethritis, but flows backward into the
bladder. In this condition the patient will probably suffer
Taylor, " Venereal Diseases, " p. 125.
GONORRHOEA. 331
with a burning pain between the testicles and in the peri-
neum, and will have a frequent and intense desire to
urinate tenesmus without being able to void his urine.
Sometimes there is such a high degree of congestion of the
urethra that blood is mingled with the urine.
In some cases the tenesmus, or ineffectual straining, is
most distressing, and the sufferer has a constant desire to
urinate without relief being obtained. Sometimes he sits
on the commode almost constantly, passing a few drops of
bloody urine now and then, and bathed in a profuse sweat,
while at other times, and in other cases, there is inconti-
nence of urine, or a condition in which he cannot retain his
urine from constantly dribbling away.
Frequent pollutions are often induced in this condition,
causing relapse after relapse, so that the disease may last
for weeks, or months, or indefinitely. Such a patient is
very liable to be sterile. In men who have hypertrophy of
the prostate, or a stricture from an old attack of gonorrhoea,
posterior urethritis is a most distressing and sometimes
alarming and dangerous complication, the combination of
acute and chronic disorders leading to general blood-poison-
ing and an ascending gonorrhoea which attacks the kidneys.
Repeated infections of gonorrhoea are more dangerous
than a single attack ; for then there is liable to be a sub-
acute form, lasting indefinitely and becoming aggravated, as
it continues, by various sequelae and complications which
may lead to a fatal termination.
Gonorrhoeal rheumatism and involvement of the heart,
by endocarditis or pericarditis, are very liable to cause
permanent impairment of health and even death; while
sterility may follow upon inflammation of the testicles,
epididymes and seminal vesicles, and further grievous
damage is not infrequently caused by abscesses of the
prostate, peritonitis, bladder and kidney complications,
and affections of the eyes.
The prognosis in each case, of course, depends on the
332 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
conduct and prudence of the patient as well as the skill in
treatment. When one considers that the sexual appetite,
in some of these cases, is uncontrollably strong and pas-
sionate, and that the patient is degenerated by evil ways
of living and thinking, he can readily see that the physi-
cian must be guarded in the expression of his opinion as
to the chances of a recovery which approaches a cure.
If proper care and treatment are employed, a provisional
cure may often, under favorable circumstances, be looked
for in a month or two.
The Treatment of Acute Gonorrhoea. A clearer conception
of the gonorrhoeal process can be obtained by an insight
into the general line of treatment than by any other way.
Remember that gonorrhoea, as a rule, remains a local dis-
ease, but that the gonococci in the urethra elaborate certain
poisonous chemical substances ptomaines which some-
times produce a general constitutional effect of septicaemia,
or blood-poisoning, and that sometimes the gonococci
themselves enter the circulation and are carried in the
blood-stream to the heart, the eyes, the brain and the large
joints, where they produce disastrous results.
The absolute diagnosis of gonorrhoea can be made only
when the physician has demonstrated the presence of gono-
cocci in the mucus or pus discharge by microscopical ex-
amination ; though of course one can be practically certain
of the character of the disease from the information gained
by clinical experience.
After cohabitation with a suspicious woman, a man is
liable to be worried and anxious and unable to enjoy a
single moment's peace of mind. As a rule, therefore, pa-
tients present themselves early for treatment, and certainly
as soon as the discharge is well developed.
There is hardly any disease for which so many methods
of treatment have been tried as for gonorrhoea; and since
uninformed men have fallen into the habit of considering
it a trifling ailment, the druggist probably treats more cases
GONORRHCEA. 333
in the early stages than the physician, though the latter
is bound to receive their visits soon, usually after irrepar-
able damage has been done.
The " man about town" often has a panacea for clap,
which he says has cured him time after time, when, in
reality, he never was cured of the virulent attack which he
had acquired perhaps years before these fresh attacks of
" bastard clap" being merely outbreaks of the original un-
cured malady. From false reports such as these the igno-
rant are often deluded into self-medication by the use of
internal remedies and injections which are "warranted
to cure in three days." The penalty in such cases is
usually a stricture or sterility.
Gonorrhoea is inevitably a self-limited disease, and just
as a bone requires at least six weeks for its firm union in
spite of the most renowned surgeon's skill, so this disease
also requires from five to six weeks for its cure, even under
the most favorable methods of treatment ; and if a remedy
can ever be found which will give such results in every case,
it will be hailed by the profession as a medical triumph.
The truth is that gonorrrhoea is one of the most thankless
of all diseases to treat if one is to expect recovery with no
evil consequences left behind i.e., a cure, or restitutio ad
integrum. This view every specialist on venereal diseases
supports with emphasis. In many ways this class of pa-
tients are most undesirable : social conditions usually make
concealment necessary, and any disease treated in privacy
is always unsatisfactorily controlled, and the sexual appe-
tite, the most powerful of all impulses in these men, is by
the nature of the disease abnormally stimulated, while for
the subsidence of the inflammatory process this passion
should be at rest.
Patients with gonorrhoea under all circumstances wish to
be soon rid of it, and in many instances consider a rapid
cure imperative. A plan has been adopted to meet this
class of cases, called the abortive method.
334 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
The Abortive Method. This method aims to cut short the
disease at its very inception, before the gonoccoci have had
time to develop but this can rarely be effected.
Any attempt to abort gonorrhoea after pus has been seen
at the meat us is useless, but the patient's importunity
sometimes leads the physician of small experience to make
the trial.
This method which need not be described is very pain-
ful ; and inflammation, sometimes slight, sometimes severe,
is sure to follow, so that there will be a sloughing of the
parts touched and an escape of pus from its effects. If
the attempt at aborting the gonorrhoea fail, the acute stage
will then be rendered much more severe.
The abortive method, consequently, is unjustifiable un-
less it be used within a few hours after the impure inter-
course and before gonorrhoea has actually been diagnosed.
General Management and Considerations on the Treatment
of Clap. The abortive method having failed, as it ordi-
narily does, the acute stage, which we now have to treat, is
rendered worse. However, in most cases, the abortive
method will not have been tried, since the patient rarely
consults the physician until the acute stage is well estab-
lished.
Impelled by the solicitations and anxiety of the patient,
the doctor will frequently employ active treatment at the
outset, using a clap-syringe and nauseating potions; but
the severity of the disease is often enhanced by these
means, for doctors are human in spite of the trust and con-
fidence which the ordinary patient reposes in them.
Even the medical student, who has just received his
license to practise, will often lightly assume the responsi-
bilities of treating gonorrhoea, while he would exercise a
greater degree of care and assure himself that he was well
informed on modern methods before performing delicate
surgery or treating diseases of the eye. Modern require-
ments have of late years been far more severe, however, and
GONORRHOEA. 335
It is too often true that many an old-time practitioner, who
perhaps does not even possess a microscope, is less fitted
than the younger man to pronounce when the case is cured.
Both the physician and the patient are far too ready to
assume, for their self-glorification, that the disease is cured
when the external discharge is no longer visible ; but this
is far from being the case, and the mistake is liable to
result in untold harm, even after a long interval, to the
patient himself and to any woman with whom he may
cohabit.
It is important to let the patient early understand that
his ailment is in no degree trifling, but that it is a menace
to his whole future enjoyment of health, to his virility,
to his life itself, and to his family circle should he ever
marry. The modern specialist on venereal disease will
treat a case of gonorrhoea quite differently from many prac-
titioners who have failed to properly inform themselves.
The details of treatment lying solely in the physician's
province it is needless to specify here; but too much
stress cannot be laid upon the importance of warning the
patient that the discharge from his penis is a virulent
poison, and that, in order to protect his eyes from contami-
nation, he must carefully wash his hands after every manip-
ulation of the dressings or handling of the penis. The
man is "unclean," and his towels and bed-linen must be
used by him alone and washed separately. All the dress-
ings and cloths which are contaminated by the discharge
must be burned.
After a patient has acquired gonorrhoea it is compara-
tively easy to be able to inform him of the fact, but a mat-
ter of considerable nicety to say when he is free from it ;
and yet this latter decision is one of extreme moment, both
to himself and to those with whom he may cohabit.
It is a very nice matter indeed to manage a case of
gonorrhoea just as it should be, for improper treatment,
whether of too short or too long duration, or too active of
336 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
too mild, will probably convert a simple case into a chronic
one which may last indefinitely and be complicated with
stricture, sterility and sexual irritative symptoms.
Venereal patients are noted for their lying propensities,
often referring the origin of their diseases to the contami-
nation from water-closets ; indulging secretly in intercourse
when the physician has prohibited it ; lying about their
habits and symptoms, either from shame or from a desire
to lessen the amount of their expenditures ; and in every
way proving so unsatisfactory in their conduct that, in
spite of all the physician can do, they frequently go from
bad to worse, and in every particular carry out the role of
venomous animals who poison innumerable women with
disease, insidiously, under the guise of love, not giving
warning of danger as the serpents do. The man who lies
to his physician is a fool indeed, and the more so if he
really expects to hoodwink men whose life-work it is to
study human nature and its frailties.
Chronic Gonorrhoea. Chronic gonorrhoea is often spoken
of as synonymous with " gleet" ; but the former term is more
correct the latter being a mere symptom.
There are many influences which cause an acute case of
clap to become chronic; this mishap, unfortunately, very
frequently occurring, in which event the patient is not only
liable to a protracted siege of suffering, annoyance and ex-
pense, but also for a period of months or years menaces
any woman with whom he may cohabit, as well as all who
follow him in his impure intercourse.
Of course every case of chronic gonorrhoea develops from
a pre-existing acute attack ; and when the declining stage,
which is characterized by a clear mucous discharge, re-
mains refractory to treatment, the inflammation becomes
localized or limited to one patch of the urethra, usually in
that part which is the most vascular, and where there are
the greatest number of glands, such as the bulbous, mem-
branous and prostatic portions of the urethra.
GONORRHOSA. 337
Causes or Factors which Convert an Acute Attack into
Chronic Gonorrhoea. 1. There is a natural tendency for
gonorrhoea to remain indefinitely latent or dormant, be-
cause the gonococci bury themselves deeply in the tissues,
where they can with difficulty be reached by medicinal ap-
plications.
2. Too active or too mild treatment on the part of the
physician, along with infractions of hygienic and dietetic
rules on the part of the patient, such as : (a) the patient,
considering himself cured as soon as the discharge is
checked, thinks that he will economize by stopping treat-
ment, though there yet remain pus cells, clap-threads and
gonococci in the urine ; (6) he is intemperate in his eating
and drinking ; (c) he does not refrain from active exercise
if a wage-earner, he must work; (d) he gratifies his
ardent sexual desires by fornication or masturbation. The
ordinary clap patient concentrates his mind and attention
on sexual matters, and, if he cannot fornicate, will com-
promise by associating with lewd and loose women whom he
can at least hug and kiss, thereby promoting congestion of
the already inflamed tissues by sexual excitement; (e)
some have peculiar idiosyncrasies or diatheses which favor
the development of the chronic form, e.g., syphilis, or the
gouty or rheumatic diathesis, or any debilitating disease.
3. Relapses or rapidly recurring fresh infections of
gonorrhoea favor the acquirement of the chronic type.
After a period of treatment of six or eight weeks' duration,
during which the patient has been continent, he thinks that
he must now reward himself by a spree, either of drinking
or of venery ; then comes on a relapse which is treated and
disappears. Similar conduct brings on relapse after re-
lapse, each one of less intensity and suffering, but con-
tinually conducing to the firm implantation of the gono-
cocci in the tissues, with a resulting serious and permanent
damage to important structures.
It is thus seen that there are many influences which favor
22
338 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
an attack of gonorrhoea becoming chronic, and no patient
can for a moment assure himself that he will escape this
misfortune.
Can gonorrhoea last for a long time? Indeed it can.
" In very many cases of posterior urethritis, there being
no visible discharge, and the patients complaining of no
symptoms referable to the deep urethra, the affection re-
mains dormant, latent and unrecognized. Thus the cases
may drag on for one or more, and even five, ten, and
twenty years without giving any indication of lurking
trouble. In some of these cases an exacerbation occurs,
and then the patient realizes that he has had an uncured
gonorrhoea." 1
Can a patient have repeated attacks of gonorrhoea?
1. One attack, after its complete cure, furnishes abso-
lutely no immunity.
2. An acute attack may be contracted while yet suffer-
ing from chronic gonorrhoea.
3. A fresh attack requires two or three days for its incu-
bation or development, while a mere relapse of an old case
shows its symptoms at once. The cause of chronic gonor-
rhoea is of course the gonococcus. These gonococci may
remain latent for almost indefinite periods of time in cer-
tain parts of the genital area, and become enfeebled in
power, but not inert; and men who suffer from chronic
gonorrhoea infect their wives with a chronic, and some-
times with an acute gonorrhoea, perhaps months or years
after they have supposed themselves cured.
Symptoms of Chronic Gonorrhoea. Many a man is suffer-
ing with chronic gonorrhoea without being aware of it, since
there is not always, by any means, an external discharge
from the meatus.
When there is chronic gonorrhoea in the anterior urethra
there is apt to be a thin, watery discharge, which later on
becomes thick, tenacious, and yellowish, gluing together
Baylor, "Venereal Diseases," p. 168.
GONORRHOEA. 339
the lips of the meatus, and constantly staining the linen.
To this form the term " gleet" is appropriate. Dietetic or
sexual intemperance renders the patient liable to an acute
recrudescence of the morbid process, so that he often
thinks that he has contracted a fresh case of gonorrhoea.
This gleety discharge trickles away from what is termed
the "pendulous urethra," i.e., that part of the urethra
situated in the portion of the penis which naturally hangs
downward when not in a state of erection. Sometimes
the discharge is profuse and sometimes there is merely a
drop or two of a yellowish or grayish-white secretion seen
only in the morning. This is often lightly spoken of by
roues as the "good-morning drop."
This gleety discharge is the most frequent symptom of
chronic gonorrhoea, not, as a rule, causing much pain,
though productive of a varying degree of mental distress
and melancholy dependent on the sensitiveness of the pa-
tient. Often this symptom persists for years and nothing
seems to be able to check it.
" Cases of gleet are occasionally seen that defy all meas-
ures cf treatment. Although trite, the expression of Kicord
with regard to the obstinacy of gleet is decidedly pat. This
famous specialist once said that he dreamed he was dead
and had been sent to purgatory. Upon being asked what
sort of a place it was, he replied that it would have been
pleasant enough if it had not been for the fact that whole
troops of male spectres stalked about him, each pointing
its ghastly finger at him and exclaiming : ' Ricord ! Ri-
cord! you could not cure my gleet.' '
This gleet is kept up by a patch of inflammation in the
urethra, and so long as it remains localized on the surface
of the mucous membrane it will continue until it heals by
the formation of scar-tissue. If this inflammatory process
spread more deeply into the structures beneath the mucous
membrane, and into the substance of the body of the penis,
*G. Frank Lydston, M.D., "Gonorrhoea and its Treatment," p. 79.
340 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
as it frequently does, then the condition is much more seri-
ous, because scar-tissue forms at that area and retracts, so
as to form a dense, gristly constriction, or stricture, which
encroaches on and narrows the urinary passage to a dan'
gerous degree.
If the chronic gonorrhoea be localized in the posterior
urethra, the conditions present a much more serious prog-
nosis. This portion of the urethra not being pendulous,
the discharge will of course gravitate downward into the
bladder.
In some cases there is a frequent desire to urinate, with
uneasiness or severe pain either at the beginning or end of
the act; in others there is a stabbing pain or a throbbing
in the perinseum or testicles or in the rectum. These
symptoms may not be continuously present, but may vary
from day to day.
If the inflammation has extended to the prostate gland,
which is an extremely sensitive and complex organ in close
relationship to the sexual apparatus, there are bound to be
irritative sensations on urinating, defecating, or on perform-
ing the sexual act, and, in addition, irritation of the whole
nervous system.
Often there is bladder-tenesmus, or a straining effort to
pass urine without success, or sometimes there is simply a
desire to urinate very frequently, only a few drops passing
at a time.
In other cases there is derangement in the sexual sphere;
pollutions are common, with a cor responding loss of sexual
appetite and power. During copulation erection may oc-
cur, but there is a premature emission without pleasurable
sensation, and even with severe lancinating pains in the
testicles, groins, back or thighs.
Sometimes on account of a thickish, opaque mucous fluid
which escapes involuntarily, the patient imagines that he
has spermatorrhoea; but this is merely a prostatorrhcea,
or catarrhal discharge from the prostate gland.
GONORRHOEA. 341
However, in not a few cases there is a true spermator-
rhoea, and spermatozoids can be found in the urine ; and in
other instances there is a free discharge of semen during
each act of defecation and urination. Conditions like these
would, of course, rapidly bring about impotence and steril-
ity with attendant melancholia and apathy.
Sometimes there is inflammation and irritability of the
caput gallinaginis a longitudinal fold of mucous mem-
brane and other subjacent tissues, exceedingly rich in
nerves, situated on the floor of the posterior urethra and
intimately associated with the voluptuous sensations of the
sexual act. There is then apt to be a condition of sexual
neurasthenia, or increased excitability and irritability of
the nervous system in regard to sexual and sensual matters.
Since the nerve centre which presides over the sexual
functions is situated in the spinal cord, these various dis-
orders often produce spinal affections, such as partial or
complete paralysis of certain groups of muscles, or hyper-
sesthesia and extreme excitability of the muscles.
" The general condition always remains good, the appear-
ance and nutrition may be excellent. Nevertheless the
patients are usually in a deplorable state. The impotence
and pollutions depress the mind, the various sensations
rouse the belief in some serious disease which is concealed
by the physician, the mood is gloomy and hypochondriacal.
This is especially true when the nervous disturbances
spread farther, and other spinal symptoms are added.
These include the various manifestations of spinal irrita-
tion, pressure and pain in the back, formication, cold or
heat along the spine, radiating neuralgias and paralgias,
particularly in the lumbo-sacral plexus. The neurasthenic
symptoms may also spread farther. Digestion then suffers,
symptoms of gastric and intestinal catarrh set in, but are
only the result of atony. These reduce the patient, and
his condition is thus aggravated materially. The nervous
symptoms become more severe. There is general depres-
342 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
sion, pressure in the head, mental obtuseness, palpitation
of the heart, etc. The unstable vasomotor system causes
rapidly changing color, pallor and redness, especially in
the face. Digestion is poor, the local symptoms in the
domain of the uropoietic and sexual organs attain consider-
able intensity no wonder that not a few of these patients
terminate their existence by suicide."
The Degree of Infectiousness of Chronic Gonorrhoea. For
the ex-gonorrhoeal patient who is contemplating marriage,
and for the married man who has broken the pledge of
fidelity and constancy implied in his solemn marriage vow,
and has become infected, it is exceedingly important that
they shall distinctly understand that they are, in all seri-
ousness, venomous and poisonous and deadly to whatever
woman they approach in the sexual relation, until pro-
nounced safe by a skilled specialist, and that many of
them never can be cured. Death does not follow in their
path at once, but countless numbers of innocent women
pay for their husbands' dirty and illegitimate practices
with their shipwrecked health and life. Unlike the cobra's
and the rattlesnake's bite, the immediate results of infection
are not usually seen to be dangerous to life ; but gonorrhoea
is characterized by an indefinitely long period of conval-
escence, so that wives and children will suffer terrible con-
sequences, even years afterward, unless the patient be no
longer a gonococcus-bearing animal.
Only the physician who is skilled in the modern methods
of microscopical research can decide when the patient is no
longer a menace to society, and the opinion of no other is of
the least value. As mentioned heretofore, the discharge
of chronic gonorrhoea may appear at the meatus in the form
of a mere drop of pus, hardly noticeable, or it may come
from the posterior urethra and not show at all, externally,
on account of the backward gravitation of the discharge
linger, "Gonorrhoea and its Complications," English trans., p.
148,
GONORRHOEA. 343
toward the bladder. In this latter and by far more usual
event the recognition of the disease can be made only by
microscopical demonstration of pus-corpuscles and clap-
shreds in the urine a trained eye of course being neces-
sary to distinguish them from other objects in the field of
vision. Without exception the gonococci can always be
found in a case of acute gonorrhoea, but by no means
always in chronic gonorrhoea. The finding of gonococci in
chronic gonorrhoea of course makes the diagnosis sure,
but the failure to find them on the first examination does
not at all exclude the possibility of their presence.
Pus corpuscles and clap-shreds may be seen day after day
with the microscope in a case of chronic gonorrhoea, and no
gonococci appear along with them ; then, after any debauch
or excess on the part of the patient, they may exuberate and
come out from their lurking-places in the deep recesses and
crypts of the urethra and its accessory canals, and reappear
in considerable numbers.
In the terminal stages of a case of chronic gonorrhoea
specialists sometimes make use of the following plan, in
order to see if a man is fit to marry and entirely free from
the poison germs :
To make certain that the patient is innocuous, after pus
corpuscles and clap-shreds can no longer be found by the
microscope in his urine, an artificial irritation is induced
in the urinary organs in order to temporarily lower the re-
sisting power of the tissues, so that if there are any gono-
cocci dormant or lurking in the folds and crypts and
canaliculi of the genital passages, they may have a fair
opportunity to make their appearance. To effect this the
patient is either directed to go out and take a large and
rather indigestible dinner with plenty of wine or beer ; or
a relapse is purposely induced by throwing into his ure-
thra a "test irritating injection." These test irritant
methods bring about a simple wrethrtiis, with suppuration,
and the pus is then examined for gonococci. If gonococci
344 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
cannot be found after repeated trials of this artificial method
of inducing a relapse, then there are almost certainly none
present, and the patient may marry.
If, on the other hand, gonococci are found, he must in
no event marry until they cannot be made to reappear ; nor
for a considerable period, preferably six months, thereafter.
If the doctor tell the patient that there are no longer
any gonococci, the latter will consider himself cured ; but
as a rule, after a chronic gonorrhoea, there is not a " cure"
in the real sense of the word, since the urethral tissues
have been unfavorably modified by the smouldering in-
flammation, and his genital apparatus is not as good as it
once was. In order to insure him against a narrowing of
the calibre of the urinary tube stricture he will present
himself more or less frequently, for a period of several
months, for the passage of "sounds." "Neisser (1884)
was the first who studied the subject scientifically. He
proved that the infectiousness of chronic gonorrhoea is a
conditional one, in so far as the secretion may contain
gonococci, that there are cases in which the secretion con-
tains the cocci only at times, and finally others which are
always found to be free from gonococci despite the most
careful and frequent examinations. Furthermore, since the
secretion is small in amount, and after being washed away
by the urine requires a considerable time for its regenera-
tion, it follows that a single act of coitus with an individual
suffering from chronic gonorrhoea does not necessarily pro-
duce infection. As the result of numerous examinations I
concur in this opinion, and permit a patient who is suffering
from chronic gonorrhoea, i.e., the morning drop or clap-
threads, to have marital intercourse only after I have con-
vinced myself by a two to four weeks' daily examination
of the secretion or clap-shreds that these contain only epi-
thelium and no pus cells, and when, after irrigation of the
urethra with a solution of silver nitrate or corrosive subli-
mate and consequent suppuration, the secretion is entirely
GONORRHCEA* 345
free from gonococci, and there is no further indication for
the continuance of treatment." ' Before a man can indulge
in marital intercourse, Finger requires three conditions
"the absence of gonococci, pus corpuscles, and peri-ure-
thral complications."
"One condition I must especially emphasize, viz., the
absence of pus corpuscles. The presence of shreds of pus
corpuscles in the secretion is always an indication that the
inflammation is not extinguished. It is possible that the
inflammation still continues despite the disappearance of
the gonococcus, its original etiological factor, but this will
probably not be true of many cases. On the other hand,
the question of the presence of gonococci is often answered
with difficulty. Positive findings put the matter beyond
question, but negative findings do not prove that gonococci
are not present. After long and laborious examinations
with negative results the gonococci may suddenly reap-
pear, so that I most urgently caution against answering the
question with regard to marital intercourse from the results
of bacteriological examination. This should be refused so
long as pus corpuscles are present." a
The statements of this great specialist are supported by
every surgeon who has to deal with the special diseases
of either men or women, and it is a fact, lamented by the
whole profession, that an immense amount of suffering
among innocent married women is due to the old-standing
uncured gonorrhoeas of their once profligate husbands.
The Treatment of Chronic ' Gonorrhoea. Many patients
become so neurasthenic and hysterical over their condition
that they exaggerate their symptoms and run from one
doctor to another, selecting him who* will gratify their
anxiety by adopting the most active line of treatment.
Many such cases, which are submitted to over-treatment
by energetic and unwarrantable methods, suffer great
damage by the perpetuation of an intractable gleet. Treat-
1 Finger; loc. ctt. t p. 154. 'Finger; ibid., D. 1^5.
346 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
ment will, of course, promise better results in recent cases
than in old, neglected, or over-treated ones, and there will
be a better outlook if the chronic gonorrhoea is not compli-
cated with stricture or neurasthenic symptoms, such as
pollutions, prostatorrhoea, and intense excitability in the
sexual domain. While the prognosis may be favorable in
simple, uncomplicated cases, we must always bear in mind
that the sequelae and involvements and extension of the
disease to other organs not infrequently cause serious and
permanent damage, and even death.
So intractable are these chronic gonorrhoeas that the
physician cannot predict with any assurance the length of
time which may be required for their treatment, nor, in
fact, whether any marked relief can ever be looked for ; nor
can he, in some of the cases, ever countenance the marriage
of any woman to such an unfortunate man.
There is one point, surprising as it may be, which must
be given the greatest consideration and this is, that a
stricture, or retraction and drawing together of the tissues
which were once the seat of the localized inflammation,
may develop many years after the patient has considered
himself entirely cured.
Out of 164 cases of stricture, Sir Henry Thompson gives
the period of development as follows : *
10 cases occurred during the acute gonorrhoea.
71 * developed in 1 year.
41 " u 3 to 4 years.
22 " " * 1 " 8 a
20 a " 20 a 25 "
When a man is yet in the prime of his life his tissues re-
sist morbid influences more powerfully, the repair and the
waste of all the structures of the body keeping an approxi-
mately parallel course ; but when he begins to go down-
hill, and has turned his face toward the evening of life, the
1 Vide Finger ; loc. tit, p. 144.
GONORRHCEA. 347
balance between repair and waste is disordered in favor of
the latter, and those parts of his body which are least re-
sistive are the first to suffer from unfavorable influences.
The noonday of life is reached early or late, according to
the previous habits of the individual and his ancestral
legacy ; but after this meridian has passed the weak spots
begin to appear. Thus, strictures may develop, according
to Thompson's statistics, even as long as twenty-five years
after the supposed termination of the gonorrhoeal attack
scar-tissue forming at the site of the ancient gonorrhoeal
inflammation. This is what we mean by saying that a
cure a restitutio ad integrum cannot ~be promised, even in
any case, however mild. In a work of this nature it would
not be wise to attempt even an outline of the various
methods of treatment which different cases require.
Tlie Complications of Gonorrhoea. Gonorrhoea is exceed-
ingly liable to be followed by one or more of various com-
plications. The male may escape with no perceptible
remote results; but if the female become infected, it is
regarded as a natural consequence and to be expected as a
foregone conclusion that the process will spread through-
out the whole extent of her sexual apparatus and render
her a miserable and incurable invalid. No disease has a
more gloomy outlook for the female than gonorrhoea, while
for the male there may be the assurance that in a majority
of cases he has been more or less permanently injured and
rendered, not infrequently, a poisonous and dangerous man
for a husband.
Certain of the complications are peculiar to each sex,
owing to the anatomical distinctions, while others are
common to both sexes. The following are the principal
complications of gonorrhoea :
In the Male.
1. Stricture of the urethra. (See Fig. XL, page 305).
2. Gonorrhoeal invasion of the epididymis and testicle.
348 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
3. Inflammation of the seminal vesicles.
4. Inflammation of the prostate gland.
5. Inflammation of Cowper's glands.
6. Peri-urethral abscess.
7. Inflammation of the glans penis and prepuce.
In the Female.
1. Urethritis.
2. Vaginitis.
3. Invasion of Bartholin's glands.
4. Invasion of uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, and peri-
toneum.
5. Eesidual or latent symptoms of gonorrhoea.
6. Sterility.
In Both Sexes.
1. Inflammation of kidneys and bladder.
2. Buboes.
3. Peritonitis.
4. Gonorrhoeal rheumatism.
5. Affections of the heart and pyaemia.
6. Gonorrhoeal conjunctivitis and ophthalmia.
7. Gonorrhoeal affections of the skin.
8. Gonorrhoea in the infant.
Long monographs have been written about each of these
topics, and even books upon the subject of stricture.
Within the short space at our command we will briefly
consider these, paying especial attention to stricture of
the urethra, since that is the most important complication
in the male, and to epididymitis, which the most frequent.
Stricture of the Urethra. (Latin, stringere, to draw tight,
to bind, to contract.) Stricture is a morbid condition of
the urethra.- of serious significance, in which the normal
function of that canal is interfered with, (a), either by
spasmodic muscular contractions of the urethral walls ; or,
(6), by a definite anatomical change in their structure,
whereby its calibre is reduced in certain parts of its course
GONOERHCEA. 349
and its dilatability impaired, (1) either by reason of an in-
creased outgrowth and thickening of the mucous membrane,
or (2) on account of the formation of a more or less dense
connective-tissue, or scar-like tissue, which draws together
and contracts the lumen, or passageway, of the canal, with
constantly increasing tendency to diminish it more and more
with the lapse of years.
Obviously the constantly accumulating urine, a waste-
product of the body, must have some channel for escape,
and, if the urethra become impervious, fistulce, or false
passages form, and the urine finds its exit through one or
more openings in the penis, scrotum, or surface of the
belly; or else the bladder bursts and the patient rapidly
dies from shock.
It may be years after the patient has considered himself
cured of the gonorrhoea before the obstruction to the flow
of urine becomes so marked as to arrest his attention;
for gonorrhoea does not promptly cause stricture these
lesions, as a rule, requiring years for their development.
An expert rifle-shot takes great pains to keep the inside
of his rifle-barrel untarnished and in perfect order; if it
become in the least degree rusted, it is never the same,
while if it have become badly corroded, even in one spot, it
is useless for marksmanship until re-bored to a new cali-
bre. So, also, a stricture converts the urethra into a
" pathological tube" and unfits it for its proper function.
Just as the rifle-barrel must be re-bored, in very nearly the
same manner the surgeon must almost literally re-bore and
cut and stretch the scarred urethra.
True gonorrhceal stricture is found only in the anterior
urethra, i.e., from a point in the urethra slightly posterior
to the peno-scrotal angle forward to the meatus. There
is, however, an inflammatory condition caused by the strict-
ure in the anterior portion, which secondarily affects the
posterior urethra and neck of the bladder. A stricture is
said to exist when the calibre of the urethra is diminished
35Q HEREDITY AND MORALS.
from its normal size, in which event it becomes necessary for
the surgeon to restore its patency if the patient is to be in
health. The duration of the treatment required lasts, gener-
ally speaking, for a period of months, with a supervision
extending over years or a lifetime; and it is left for the
reader to imagine, if he can, the amount of time and money
expended, the inconvenience, and the suffering physical
and mental. There is sometimes a spasmodic stricture,
which results from an inflamed and hypersensitive condi-
tion of the urethral mucous membrane. This may be
caused by the use of an improper saddle, whether on a
bicycle or horse, by alcohol or sexual excesses, by colds,
irritating condition of the urine, piles, fissure of the anus,
constipation, etc. It is due to contractions of the com-
pressor urethrse muscle and of the muscular fibres of the
urethra itself ; and when catheter or sound is passed down
a canal so affected there is a sensation of the instrument
being firmly grasped by the muscles, or the urethra may
close so firmly as to refuse to admit an instrument. These
spasmodic strictures are sometimes troublesome in prevent-
ing urination, but we do not look upon them as serious, since
they usually pass away without serious results.
Gonorrhoeal Strictures. There are three forms of stricture
associated with gonorrhoea : 1
1, the soft stricture ; 2, the semi-fibrous stricture ; and, 3,
the densely fibrous, or inodular stricture, where the ure-
thra is surrounded by an irregular and firm mass of dense,
gristly, scar-like tissue. The last and most serious variety
results, in gradations, from the second and first forms.
The soft stricture is the first to develop, usually in the bul-
bous portion of the urethra, and the disease may usually
be arrested at this stage.
If the case be neglected, however, fibrous tissue forms
at the site of the soft stricture and constitutes the semi-
fibrous stricture. Here the process may again stop; but
1 Compare Taylor, " Venereal Diseases, " p. 326 et seq.
GONORRHOEA. 351
if the case is treated not at all, or improperly, then a new
and firmer growth of fibrous tissue takes place, entirely
obliterating the normal structures, so as to form a non-elas-
tic, gristly and densely fibrous, or inodular stricture. Thus
we see that the semi-fibrous stricture develops from the in-
cipient soft stricture into the densely fibrous variety, and
that these three forms are merely different stages which
represent the increasing severity of the lesion.
It will be well to remember that in every case of gonor-
rhoea which becomes chronic there is, on account of the
continued inflammation, a growth of new cell elements,
which infiltrates the tissues lying immediately beneath the
urethral mucous membrane, and that, unless this condition
receives skilful treatment early in its inception, it will re-
sult in a serious, permanent injury to the urethra, reducing
its calibre and impairing its dilatability.
The soft stricture, or earliest and least severe of the
varieties, may remain soft for months or years, always
having a tendency, however, to become firm and fibrous
and to contract, which it certainly will do upon the slight-
est provocation, .g., from inordinate sexual indulgence, a
reinfection of gonorrhoea, severe exercise, or, in short, from
any cause which may inflame the damaged urethra.
In the less severe forms of stricture only the mucous
membrane and the tissues lying immediately beneath it
are affected, while in the severer and later varieties the
scar-like tissue forms even in the structures which form the
body of the penis, or corpus spongiosum so that one can
feel, by external manipulation, the hard, cord-like masses
in which the urethra seems to be embedded. This condi-
tion is most common at the peno-scrotal angle, just where
the scrotum joins the under surface of the penis.
Even a mild case of gonorrhoea may result disastrously ;
for the inflammatory processes very frequently last long
after the attack is supposed to be over, and are followed by
an extensive outgrowth of exuberant and unhealthy tissue.
352 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Many and many a man who has had gonorrhoea and
thinks himself cured will suffer from stricture when he gets
older ; the one precaution which it is in his power to take
is, to see that he does not get a reinfection of this terrible
disease. " In many cases the process remains limited for
years, but even when it has thus remained dormant it may
later on become active and involve more tissue. This is
the underlying cause of the extensive and deeply invading
strictures which are not uncommonly found in old men." 1
Owing to the extremely slow processes which take place
in stricture formation they are not common before twenty-
five years of age, while the greatest number of cases occur
between twenty-five and forty years, and the next heaviest
figures fall between forty and fifty years of age. 2 "It is
significant of the usual slowly developing character of stric-
ture that the greatest number of patients felt the necessity
of relief between the twenty-fifth and fiftieth years."
Strictures vary much in the extent and depth to which
they extend, and in their softness or density, their tendency,
however, being to grow denser and denser, and to narrow
the urinary passage more and more.
The layman very naturally might feel surprise that scar-
tissue should be so prone to grow and to show activity, be-
cause he notices that scars on the surface of his body remain
unchanged for a lifetime. But, by way of explanation, it
must be pointed out that the urethra is not only an ex-
tremely delicate tube surrounded by highly vascular tis-
sues, but that it also must be in continual use just like the
bile ducts, or even the heart; in other words the scar, being
in vital tissues, itself keeps vital and takes on renewed activ-
ity with every loss of resisting power on the part of the sur-
rounding tissues. If scar-like tissue, similar to a stricture,
form in the passages which convey the semen from the
testicles, then it does often completely seal up these tubes
and render the individual sterile, because these seminal
1 Taylor, loc. tit., p. 327. 8 Compare Taylor, ibid., pp. 329, 330.
GONORRHOEA. 353
passageways are not in any way essential to life, nor are
they by any means so vascular as the urethra. A stricture
which is at first limited to one comparatively small patch
of the urethra has a tendency to spread and to travel along
the tissues, so that eventually there may be several different
places which are the seats of the morbid process. Some-
times there is merely a narrow band or ring of stricture-
tissue surrounding the urethra, and sometimes the fibrous
tissue extends along the tube for four or five inches ; and,
again, there may be stricture of the urethra in two, or
three, or more places, between which there is a portion of
healthy tube. Almost all strictures of long-standing dura-
tion are annular, i.e., they have grown until they complete-
ly surround the urethral canal.
The stricture tissue scar-like tissue does not affect the
urethra alone, but extends deeply into the substance of the
penis ; what we find in the urethra being only a surface
indication of the deeply seated malady. These strictures
present many varieties in shape and extent; sometimes
they are mere thread-like thickenings in the mucous mem-
brane; sometimes there is a crescentic or valve-like flap
which juts out into the urethra; sometimes there is a
complete diaphragm extending across the canal with an
opening in the centre; and sometimes the fibrous tis-
sue has grown to such an extent that the urine has to pass
through an extremely tortuous, crooked and contracted
canal.
Stricture formation may be quite rapid and develop
within six months from the initial attack of gonorrhoea,
but, generally speaking, the process is long drawn out.
It would be assuming a great deal on the part of any
physician to promise any man who has ever had a chronic
gonorrhoea, however mild, that he will never have a stric-
ture. The patient is usually advised to present himself,
perhaps not more than two or three times a year, but for
many years, for observation, in order that sounds may be
23
354 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
passed for the purpose of detecting a possible stricture in
its very beginning, when the most good can be done.
The Symptoms of Stricture. To an observant patient
the first symptom to present itself is usually a gleety dis-
charge of mucus, or of mucus mixed with pus, which
comes from the meatus in the morning, or at intervals
throughout the day. He will probably very soon notice
that the stream of urine has become narrower than it
should be, and divided into two or three jets, or perhaps
given a peculiar screw-shaped twist. If the stricture is
well advanced there will probably be a constant dribbling
away of urine, so that the unfortunate man must wear
cloths to receive it. This is due to the fact that the dense
and inelastic stricture-tissue does not permit the urethra to
firmly close, and the urine escapes in drops through the
more or less rigid tube.
Long after a gonorrhoea has been supposed to be cured
the patient may, on account of an unrecognized stricture,
complain of uneasiness or actual pain in the penis and peri-
nseum, and especially at the end of the penis.
Sometimes the patient notices that he is required to
make greater straining efforts in order to expel his urine ;
but this symptom eventually passes away in a few weeks,
since the bladder-walls become thickened and hypertro-
phied in order to overcome the increased resistance which
the stricture offers to the flow of urine.
An unobservant person might not notice these symptoms
unless they were very well-marked.
As the disease becomes more advanced the bladder be-
comes so irritable, as a rule, that the sufferer must rise
very frequently during the night in order to urinate, the
act being accompanied with pain. Sometimes he must
strain for a long time before he can start the flow of urine,
and when it does come it may suddenly stop before he has
emptied the bladder.
In many cases of stricture the first thing to attract atten-
GONORRHCEA. 355
tion to the trouble is the alarming symptom of " retention
of urine/' or the inability to void urine, which may have
been brought about by exposure to cold, a drinking-bout,
indiscretions in diet, or by any cause which inflames the
bladder and urethra. The stricture may have been present
for months, but in these cases does not, perhaps, manifest
itself until irritation is produced from some cause or other.
There is hardly any symptom which is so likely to terrify
the patient as this for he knows that every moment will
make his condition worse instead of better, and that his
very life depends upon his emptying his bladder. Some
men who have stricture suffer with retention of urine
almost every time they go on a spree, while others never
have it. This is due to the fact that retention is more fre-
quent when the stricture is situated far back in the urethra
behind the peno-scrotal angle, and very infrequent when
the trouble is in the anterior part of the canal.
Some patients, on the other hand, suffer from " inconti-
nence of urine," or the inability to retain their urine. This
is especially frequent in cases of very tight stricture where
the canal is much reduced in calibre. In this condition
the bladder is never completely emptied the patient
being relieved of the imperative desire to urinate by the
passage of only a part of the secretion. Incontinence of
urine is due to a paralysis of the external sphincter vesicce
and compressor urethrce muscles, the function of which is
to keep the neck of the bladder and the urethra firmly
closed until the individual voluntarily decides to urinate.
When this miserable condition of incontinence exists
the bladder never being completely emptied, the retained
urine becomes foul and ammoniacal and sets up severe in-
flammation in the bladder, which ultimately extends to the
kidneys. The overflow of urine continually dribbles away,
keeping the genital organs and thighs constantly wet, so
that the patient has a markedly urinous odor about him.
In some of these cases the urine accumulates to such a
356 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
degree that it gives rise to distention of the bladder. As
this distention increases the walls of the bladder become
paralyzed and lose their power of contracting, so that after
a time the amount of urine becomes so great that it over-
flows, and finds its way out involuntarily. This condition
Gross called the " incontinence of retention, " and in such
cases the bladder may become so greatly distended as to
reach as high as the navel.
Important changes also take place behind the stricture.
Owing to the mechanical impediment to the flow of urine,
that part of the urethra behind the stricture dilates, so
that sometimes a pouch is formed. The increased hydro-
static pressure and the irritating properties of the foul
urine cause ulcerations in the posterior urethra, and even-
tually a few drops of urine percolate into the tissues through
the spots where the mucous membrane has been eroded.
This starts an abscess in that region, and the urine will
now burrow under the skin and ultimately force its way
out by fistulous openings either in the perineum or on the
surface of the scrotum, or thighs, or as high up on the
belly as the navel.
Extravasation of urine, or a diffusion of urine into the
surrounding tissues, occurs when the urethra ruptures at
the site of the inflamed and devitalized area. It is an ex-
ceedingly grave complication of stricture and always re-
quires prompt surgical aid. It is rendered especially
grave from the fact that the urine of patients who are suf-
fering with tight strictures is usually foul and decomposed,
and urine in such a condition rapidly sets up blood poison-
ing and extensive necrosis, or gangrene, of all tissues outside
of the urinary passages, with which it comes in contact.
The rupture of the urethra may occur when the patient is
straining to urinate, or from an uncontrollable spasmodic
effort on the part of the abdominal muscles and bladder.
At first the patient may experience no pain, but even a
feeling of relief from the desire to urinate, though he is
GONORRHCEA. 357
surprised that relief has come without the passing of any
urine. The condition is somewhat analogous to what oc-
curs when a garden-hose breaks at some part of its course,
the water leaking out at the break, but none, or little, com-
ing from the nozzle. The urine which leaks out at the site
of the break diffuses itself through the tissues and burrows
through them in various directions, causing them to swell
wherever it goes. The swelling is limited to the subcuta-
neous tissues of the penis, scrotum, perinseum, and walls
of the abdomen. This extravasated and putrid urine con-
tinues to tunnel passages for itself in various directions
and by its decomposition sets up symptoms which are
indicative of blood-poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting,
loss of appetite, high fever, chills, ursemic coma, delirium,
and death if surgical aid be not promptly given. Some-
times the effect of this putrid urine is to cause extensive
sloughing of the skin surfaces, so tlfat the testicles may
be left bare and denuded of their scrotal covering.
After the rupture the patient will be unable to urinate,
and a surgeon is quickly called in.
Abscess of the prostate sometimes develops as a result of
stricture. If the inflammation of the prostate gland, which
surrounds the prostatic portion of the urethra, go on to
end in pus-formation, the patient will suffer with a throb-
bing pain at the neck of the bladder, and an impediment to
the free passage of urine will occur on account of a pressure
on the urethra by the enlarged prostate, which may com-
pletely close it. In such cases the muscular force de-
manded of the bladder, in order to expel its contents, is so
great that the bladder walls become enormously hypertro-
phied and more powerful, the thickening in some cases
being five or six times as great as normal. As a conse-
quence of this hypertrophy of the bladder walls, the
mucous membrane which lines the bladder gets thrown
into numerous deep folds, and on account of the powerful
straining efforts to evacuate the urine, large pouches or
358 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
sacs form, which may even become larger than the bladder
itself.
In these pouches the urine stagnates and putrefies, and
their walls tend to become thinner and thinner from over-
distention, while calculi, or stones, very frequently form
in them by a morbid deposition of the earthy matter and
salts of the urine. Sometimes the pouches become so at-
tenuated that they burst and allow the putrid urine to es-
cape into the abdominal cavity, in which event death
speedily occurs from shock or peritonitis.
Changes in the Urine in Stricture. In severe and neglected
cases of stricture some of the urine is retained in the blad-
der and decomposes, with the result that the kidneys be-
come involved, and herein lies the chief danger; not in
the impediment to urination per se, but in the retention of
a portion of the decomposed and septic urine.
Such urine putrM, fetid, and highly poisonous may
so alter the structure of the kidneys by the inflammation
excited in them that they cannot eliminate the urine from
the system.
The patient's condition is then truly pitiable. He is
gravely ill and suffers with urinary fever, severe pains in
the back and loins, and dropsy. He usually makes the
effort to pass urine every few minutes, perhaps succeeding
in voiding at each trial only a few drops of offensive and
putrid urine which scalds the urethra. The suffering is
intense, and such severe cases usually end fatally.
TJie Causes of Stricture. The chief cause is long-con-
tinued inflammation following gonorrhoea, which leads to the
growth of cicatricial, or fibrous, tissue in and about the
walls of the urethra. A stricture is more apt to follow a
gonorrhoea which has lasted for a long time, no matter
how mild the attack was ; the sharpness of the attack hav-
ing less to do with the recovery than the length of the pe-
riod of convalescence.
We have already discussed spasmodic strictures, but
GONORRHOEA. 359
there yet remain two or three rarer varieties. Syphilitic
sores at the meatus are sometimes followed by stricture,
and excessive masturbation is said to cause it in some in-
stances by exciting an active congestion and inflammation
of the urethral mucous membrane. In a few other cases
strictures may be caused by the use of caustic or irritant
injections used in the attempt to abort gonorrhoea.
The chances of stricture increase very much with each
fresh attack of gonorrhoea, and the patient who presents
himself to a doctor with this lesion will usually give a
history of having had more than one infection, or else a
recrudescence, or fresh outbreak, of the single original
infection.
The important point to remember is that even the mildest
case of clap is liable to be followed by a stricture unless it
be thoroughly and promptly treated, and that the length of
its persistence and convalescence has nlore to do with the
formation of stricture than the sharpness of the acute stage.
A few points more mostly recapitulated are to be
considered regarding stricture. Especially bear in mind
that strictures develop very slowly, constantly tending to
become firmer and denser with the lapse of time, and often
failing to produce symptoms until many years after the
patient has considered himself thoroughly cured.
On account of their slow advancement through the pro-
gressive changes it is unusual to find the modular, or
densest form, in patients under thirty years of age unless
they contracted gonorrhoea when mere children. A stric-
ture which is soft and of comparatively large calibre before
thirty years of age will probably, if untreated, become a
tight inodular stricture after the patient has passed the
fortieth year of life. These ages are, of course, only ap-
proximately correct, and are merely the average figures.
If a man have had relapses, or several fresh infections, the
outlook is so much the more grave, and almost invariably
there is a permanent injury to his procreative organs.
360 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
A gonorrhceal patient may have cystitis, or inflamma-
tion of the bladder, for several years during the late
twenties and early thirties without suffering much impair-
ment of his general health, but after he approaches forty
and thereafter, the stricture having become denser and
more contracted, the urine decomposes, on account of the
incomplete evacuation of the bladder, and the septic pro-
cess travels up the ureters to the kidneys, setting up a
severe and dangerous nephritis, or kidney inflammation, or
a pyelitis, with accumulations of pus in those glands.
These conditions make a wreck of his health and place
him upon the verge of a precipice over which he may fall
at the slightest infraction of the laws of hygiene, or upon
the receipt of any injury or accident; and they assuredly
knock off many years from his allotted expectation of life.
The prognosis is of course more unfavorable if the patient
is blameworthy in his habits, or unfortunate in his tem-
perament and heredity.
EPIDIDYMITIS AND OKCHITIS, OB INFLAMMATION OF THE
EPIDIDYMIS AND TESTICLE.
Inflammation of the testicle itself orchitis is not so
very frequent, while inflammation of the epididymis, the
convoluted canal which is accessory to the testicle, is the
most common of all the complications of gonorrhoea.
" Swelled testicle" is the popular term which is applied
to both these affections indiscriminately, though it is not
strictly proper, since the testicle itself is less often involved
than the epididymis, which lies in close relationship to it
within the scrotum.
In order to understand the subject clearly, a short ana-
tomical description of the seminiferous glands and ducts
must here be studied. These semen-producing and semen-
conveying structures are of capital importance in procrea-
tion, and if they are obliterated the essentials of virility
361
are withered and the man is thenceforth practically a
neuter.
The scrotum is a pendulous double bag which contains
the testicles and epididymes and a portion of the spermatic
cords. It consists mainly of a brownish integument, or
skin, which is very thin and provided with scattered hairs
and sebaceous follicles, and of dartos an exceedingly vas-
cular connective-tissue layer, containing unstriped muscu-
lar fibres, and lying immediately beneath the skin.
In the median line, extending from the anus forward,
along the under side of the scrotum and penis, is seen a
dark seam, or raphe, which, especially when the scrotum
is contracted under the influence of cold, rises up as a
prominent ridge. From the scrotal part of this raphe the
dartos sends in a partition of fibrous tissue, the septum
scroti, to the under surface of the penis, thus dividing the
scrotum into two lateral compartments. Under certain in-
fluences, e.g., cold, the unstriped, or involuntary muscular
fibres of the dartos cause the scrotum to contract, so that
it is closely applied to the testicles, while under other in-
fluences, e.g., warmth, they relax, so that the scrotum is
flabby and pendulous.
Lining the inside of each compartment of the scrotum is
a thin serous membrane, the tunica vaginalis, which also
forms an investment for the testicles.
The testicles are two oval glands, lying obliquely in the
scrotum, whose function it is to secrete the essential male
reproductive elements, or spermatozoa, and some of the
fluid elements of the semen.
Lying upon the outer border of the testicles, close to
their convex surfaces, are the two crescent-shaped epididy-
mides, each epididymis being described anatomically as hav-
ing a head (globus major), a body (corpus), and tail (globus
minor) .
Tn order to study these structures more carefully it is
necessary to make a section through them with a sharp
362 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
knife, when their anatomical organization can be seen in
detail.
Upon cutting open a testicle it is seen to be of a drab
color, and, if it be dissected out in a basin of water, one
can unravel a great number of thread-like filaments, each
of which has an average length of two and a half feet ;
these filaments are the seminiferous or semen-bearing tubes,
each testicle being computed to contain upward of eight
hundred of them.
Each testicle is subdivided by numerous septa, or parti-
tions, into upward of two hundred and fifty to four hun-
dred compartments, each division containing one or more
of the convoluted seminiferous tubules. The seminiferous
tubules, approximately eight hundred in number, unite
before leaving the testicle into about twenty ducts of larger
size, the vasa recta, to form the straight tubules which
carry the testicular secretions to the epididymis. They
emerge from the testicle at its upper part, piercing the
tunica vaginalis which covers it, and unite together to form
the head, globus major, of the epididymis. The head of
the epididymis is thus seen to be firmly connected with the
upper part of the testicle by these efferent ducts.. In the
head of the epididymis the tubules are still numerous and
much convoluted, or twisted and curved upon themselves,
but at the upper part of its body they unite to form a sin-
gle tube of larger calibre, approximately twenty feet in
length, which by its convolutions forms the body and glo-
bus minor. The single tube, no longer convoluted, then
continues under a new name, the vas deferens. The vas
deferens (vide Fig. XII.) is a tube, eighteen to twenty-four
inches in length, which begins at the lower part of the glo-
bus minor and passes upward along the inner side of the
testicle, forming a part of the spermatic cord; it then enters
the abdominal cavity at the internal abdominal ring, arches
over the bladder and descends to its base, where it becomes
sacculated, and finally unites at the base of the prostate
GONORRHOEA. 363
gland with the duct of the vesicula seminalis to form the
ejaculatory duct y which opens on the floor of the posterior
urethra.
The vesiculce seminales are two membranous pouches,
situated on the base of the bladder, which serve as reser-
voirs for storing the semen each vesicle of a calibre
about that of a goose-quill, and from four to six inches in
length, though from their convoluted character they ap-
pear shorter.
Each seminal vesicle terminates in a duct which unites
with the vas deferens on either side to form a duct of
larger size, which then receives the name of the ejaculatory
duct. The ejaculatory ducts, one on either side, are each
about three-quarters of an inch in length, and pierce the
prostate gland to open by two valve-like slits into the pos-
terior part of the urethra at the sides of veru montanum.
With this short consideration of the anatomical features
of the seminiferous glands and ducts we are now in a bet-
ter position to proceed to the complications of epididymitis
and orchitis.
The essential elements of the semen are formed in the
testicles and conveyed thence by a system of intricately
coiled tubes of small calibre to the posterior part of the
urethra, so that it is not difficult to understand the manner
in which the gonorrhreal process travels backward from
the urethra in the reverse direction.
Gonorrhoeal inflammation, due to the invasion of gono-
cocci, seems to have a special predilection for the tubules
in the head of the epididymis; then, next in frequency,
it invades the testicle itself; and next the larger sac-like
dilatations of the vesiculce seminales. The gonococci un-
doubtedly pass down these tubes by contiguity, infecting
as they travel along ; but the effects are most usually to
be seen only in the epididymis, though if the base of the
bladder were more accessible it would probably be found
that the seminal vesicles were first affected. The inflam-
364 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
mation which is set up by the proliferation of the gono-
cocci in the mucous membranes of the seminal passages
has a tendency here also to pass into a chronic stage and
to produce an abundant growth of scar-like tissue, which
will, almost without fail, leave permanent deleterious re-
sults wherever it is localized.
Inflammation of the epididymis or testicle, or of both, is
more frequent among that class of patients who from ne-
cessity or policy cannot rest from their ordinary occupa-
tions, or among those who have received too active and
harsh treatment in the acute stage of gonorrhoea, or who
persist in venery and alcoholic excesses. According to
Bergh and Tournier, it would seem to occur once in every
eighth or ninth case of gonorrhoea in private practice, while
Finger 1 believes that it occurs in 29.9 per cent of hospital
cases, and Lydston 2 says that it should not occur oftener
than once in twenty cases, provided that the patient has
skilful treatment and maintains sexual hygiene and rest.
Both sides are affected with equal frequency, though it is
rare to find the right and left epididymes involved at the
same time.
Time of Onset. Being a complication of posterior ure-
thritis, which does not develop at once after infection, the
inflammation of the epididymis and testicle does not, as a
rule, develop until from two to five weeks after the acute
gonorrhoea. If instruments are passed in the acute stage,
some of the gonorrhceal pus is liable to be carried down
mechanically to the posterior urethra and an epididyrnitis
may then develop within a few days. Occasionally these
symptoms are not seen until the lapse of one, two, or three
years after the beginning of the disease.
Symptoms. The most constant symptom is a severe and
sudden pain which attacks one testicle, the agony being
so great and the sensations so depressing that the patient's
l Loc. cit, p. 236.
*" Gonorrhoea and its Treatment," p. 100.
GONORRHOEA. 365
morale is upset, and he does not fail to realize that a serious
complication has befallen him.
There is usually a general systemic reaction, with fever,
chills, constipation, furred tongue, hot skin, and a rapid
pulse, with frequency of urination and, occasionally,
bloody pollutions. With the onset of an epididymitis the
urethral discharge usually ceases.
Some patients continue about their usual duties for a day
or so before they are forced to give up ; but, as a rule, suf-
ferers with epididymitis or orchitis voluntarily assume the
recumbent position within twenty-four hours. The physi-
cian will probably find the patient lying on his back, with
the leg on the affected side drawn up, and with the scrotum
supported either by the patient's hand or by a soft cushion.
Pressure on the scrotum causes agonizing pain, and even
when the sufferer lies perfectly still the torture is severe
and nauseating.
In some cases the inflammation also affects the vas
defer ens.
Not infrequently the inflammation also attacks the thin
serous envelope which lines the interior of the scrotum
the tunica vaginalisc&nsmg it to pour out a serous effu-
sion which may so distend the affected compartment that
the testicle can no longer be felt. This effusion is called
an acute hydrocele, and the hydrocele fluid, unless drawn off
by the surgical operation of "tapping," will remain indefi-
nitely before it is absorbed.
The changes just described usually come on rapidly and
attain their greatest intensity within from two to five days,
though efficient treatment does much to modify the sever-
ity of the symptoms.
Within a few days the inflammatory symptoms subside,
as a rule, and the patient resumes his ordinary mode of
life ; but residua, or left-over effects, are practically sure to
persist.
Sometimes there is a fatal peritonitis as a consequence
66 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
of gonorrhoeal invasion of the seminiferous tubes, though
usually the inflammation is localized to only a portion of
the abdominal viscera.
Termination and Results. A complete cure is rare. After
a time the effused fluid is absorbed, all perceptible swell-
ing disappears, and the patient, suffering little or no pain
or inconvenience, regards himself as well. But some in-
duration, or hardening, remains in the globus major of the
epididymis, and the skilled physician can usually feel a
knot of about the size of a pea even for months or years
after all symptoms have subsided. If there has been a
severe gonorrhceal inflammation in the vas deferens, one
can usually, for an indefinite time thereafter, trace that
structure as a firm, dense cord running upward to the ex-
ternal abdominal ring. As might be expected, the inflam-
mation is exceedingly liable to permanently seal up the
minute calibre of the seminiferous tubes with a dense scar-
tissue, throwing the affected side completely out of service ;
while if both sides are obstructed, there is of course com-
plete sterility. The individual may thereafter fully enjoy
copulation and have a discharge which he thinks is true
semen; but in reality he is sterile, the ejaculation being
absolutely wanting in spermatozoa.
With every repeated infection of gonorrhoea there is al-
most sure to be an exacerbation of the epididymitis, with
increased risk of sterility. Sometimes the testicle breaks
down into pus, suppurates, and becomes an abscess, which
discharges its necrosed elements through an external vent.
The scrotum of the side so affected may also be destroyed,
leaving an unsightly deformity. If a man is so unfortv-
nate as to have a syphilitic taint, that disease will proba-
bly attack the testicle, if inflamed with gonorrLceal virus,
with terrible intensity.
Chronic hydrocele frequently persists after epididymitis
or orchitis, causing mucn inconvenience and pain and ster-
ility.
GONORRHOEA. 367
Neuralgia also frequently persists for a long time after
such an attack. This testicular neuralgia is often agoniz-
ing in its intensity, causing insomnia, loss of appetite,
dyspepsia, nervous excitability, hypochondriasis, emacia-
tion, and profound depression of spirits. A man natu-
rally prizes the integrity of his testicles to the last degree,
and any serious damage to them is well calculated to reduce
him to despair.
We see, then, that partial or complete sterility is liable
to result from connective-tissue thickenings in the course of
these seminiferous tubes ; the scar-like tissue tending to con-
stantly become firmer and denser, so as hopelessly to put
out of service one-half or the whole of the man's reproduc-
tive organs : and, unfortunately, this complication is by no
means a rare event among gonorrhceal patients, none having
an assurance of escaping, no matter how mild the case.
INFLAMMATION OF THE SEMINAL VESICLES.
These membranous receptacles for the semen, it will be
remembered, lie on the base of the bladder, between it and
the rectum, and their excretory ducts unite with the vasa
deferentia to form the common ejaculatory ducts.
We saw how the gonococci spread by continuity down
the whole length of the urethra and thence along the
twenty-four inches of the vas deferens to the epididymis
and testicle, and, as might be expected, they also occasion-
ally find their way into the seminal vesicles.
Like epididymitis, seminal vesiculitis usually occurs
within from two to five weeks after the gonorrhceal infec-
tion. It is in almost all cases a complication of gonorrhceal
invasion of the posterior urethra ; though it may result, in
milder form, from the passage of a bougie down the ure-
thra, from injuries received by riding on an improper sad-
dle, or from any cause which might excite inflammation in
the genital sphere.
The symptoms resemble those of posterior urethritis
368 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and inflammation of the prostate. In seminal vesiculitis
there are almost constant erections, the penis sometimes
remaining in a condition of priapism, or continual painful
turgescence. There are frequent and involuntary seminal
emissions, which, instead of being attended with any pleas-
urable sensation, cause a violent and burning pain dur-
ing ejaculation. The emission is sometimes blood-stained
and partly composed of pus.
Such a patient presents a pitiable spectacle ; his mind
is riveted on his sexual apparatus to the exclusion of all
other things ; his sexual passion is enormously increased,
but the gratification of the appetite, either by coitus or
pollutions, is attended with severe pain; he is hot and
feverish ; it hurts him to allow his bladder to become filled
and it hurts him to empty it ; his sleep is much disturbed ;
he cannot have a movement of the bowels without severe
pain, and he suffers with dull, throbbing pains, which he
refers to the rectum, bladder, perineum, or spine. No
wonder that such a patient becomes much depressed in
spirits, hypochondriacal, and irritable.
Numerous cases are mentioned in medical literature
where seminal vesiculitis has been followed by abscess for-
mation, with subsequent rupture and discharge of the pus
into the bladder, peritoneal cavity, or rectum, these cases
ending sometimes in death, but usually in the formation of
fistulous tracts which are very difficult to heal.
As in all gonorrhceal processes, there is a marked ten-
dency for the condition to become chronic; but the symp-
toms are so vague and deep-seated that they often pass
undiagnosed.
If the seminiferous tubes have become occluded the
patient will be impotent, and will soon lose the power of
erection and all sexual desire.
These miserable individuals who have lost their sexual
power will put forth their utmost efforts to regain it and
hail with delight anything which will give them an erect
GONORRHOEA. 369
penis. Some of them have a dribbling of a dirty grayish
or brown mucus which stains their clothing, and sometimes
they have emissions of gonococci-containing semen mixed
\. ith pus and bloody mucus.
Others, on the contrary, who have not arrived at this
stage, have enormously increased sexual appetites. " Such
is the erotic condition of these patients that the sight of a
pretty woman, of her breast, or her ankle, throws them
into a high state of nervousness and sexual erethism. I
have known several instances in which one woman only
exerted this morbid influence upon the man. Accidental
slight contact, the glance of the eye, the sound of the voice,
and the grasp of the hand served to so excite and exalt
them sexually that an orgasm, with or without partial
erection, would result."
This is the kind of men who are most dangerous to
society. Their lust has been artificially magnified to so
great a degree and the gratification of it has so prominently
been the one idea of their lives that they are liable to be-
come seducers, ravishers, and fathers of an unhealthy brood
of illegitimate children. Such men are bewitched with the
society of women, continually indulging in erotic fancies
concerning them, frequenting dance-halls, and consorting
with many a pure girl who entirely fails to realize their
motives.
The Prognosis. The acute form usually disappears with-
in a fortnight and a seeming cure may sometimes be se-
cured; but the outlook, as in all gonorrhoeal processes,
cannot be altogether favorable. Occasionally there is a
fatal termination from rupture of the suppurating sacs ; but
more commonly a low grade of chronic inflammation per-
sists, which is liable to recrudesce with every fresh infection
or with every redevelopment of the original attack, and
with each succession of the relapses the gravity of the con-
dition is increased.
1 Taylor : "Venereal Diseases, " p. 223.
24
370 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
INFLAMMATION OP THE PROSTATE GLAND AND PROS-
TATORRHCEA.
Inflammation of the prostate is a rather common com-
plication of gonorrhoea which not infrequently ends fatally
sometimes rapidly, but more often remotely.
The prostate gland is situated at the very beginning of
the urethra, completely surrounding it as well as the n.eck
of the bladder. Posteriorly it lies in close contact with
the walls of the rectum. In size and shape it resembles
a horsechestnut, having the base directed toward the blad-
der and the blunt apex looking forward. It is partly mus-
cular and partly glandular in structure, the whole organ
being invested with a firm, fibrous, unyielding capsule.
It consists of three distinct lobes, the two larger being
placed laterally and the smaller one between them on the
under surface. Three canals run through it, the urethra
perforating it above and the two ejaculatory ducts piercing
it obliquely to open into the prostatic portion of the ure-
thra.
The prostate, though containing numerous involuntary
muscular fibres, is chiefly composed of glandular tissue,
which pours out a fluid of a milky color, of the consistence
of a rather weak solution of gum arabic. This prostatic
fluid, which is conducted to the urethra by from twelve to
twenty minute excretory ducts, serves to lubricate the mu-
cous membrane of the urethra and also is a natural vehicle
for the semen.
The organ has a rich supply of blood-vessels, lymphatics
and nerves, the latter, derived from the sympathetic ner-
vous system, being extremely sensitive.
Being so intimately associated with the posterior ure-
thra and communicating with it so freely by means of these
numerous ducts and passages, it is not to be wondered at
that the gonococci readily invade it and produce untoward
GONORRHOEA. 371
results which have a tendency to remain chronic indefi-
nitely.
Prostatitis may result from external injuries, from ex-
posure to damp and cold, or from immoderate exercise on
an improper saddle; but it is usually a complication of
gonorrhoea after it has spread to the posterior urethra.
Occasionally it rapidly follows an acute gonorrhoea of the
anterior urethra, especially if the abortive method has
been unwisely tried, or if a catheter has been passed too
early and has carried the virus down the urethra.
Sometimes the results are hardly apparent, but usually
the prostate is left in a damaged condition and rendered a
scarred, shrivelled mass with little or no glandular struc-
ture.
Symptoms. Being, as a rule, a complication of poste-
rior urethritis, which ordinarily does not develop until
after the third week of the infection, prostatitis is not to
be expected very early in the course of the disease. The
symptoms begin with a dull pain and a sensation of weight
in the perinseum. There is difficulty in urinating and a de-
sire frequently to empty the bladder. A sense of fulness
is felt in the rectum which gives rise to frequent calls to go
to stool, and often there is a tenesmus of both the bladder
and rectum which compels the patient to make the attempt
to void his urine and faeces, but without success. Some-
times urination is an impossibility, so that relief must be
given by catheterization. Owing to the swollen condition
of the prostate and the consequent pressure on the neck of
the bladder and urethra, there is great danger that a portion
of the urine will be retained and set up severe bladder and
kidney complications by its decomposition. If inflamma-
tion of the epididymis and seminal vesicles be superadded,
the patient's sufferings will be much aggravated.
Sometimes the enlarged prostate impinges on the rectum
so as almost completely to block up that passage and pre-
vent defecation. These symptoms may be further aggra-
372 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
vated by an increased sexual excitability, with erections
and pollutions, on account of the inflammation of the veru
montanum, which is situated in the prostatic portion of the
urethra, and is the chief seat of sexual desire. Few condi-
tions of disease cause so much suffering and agony as a
severe inflammation of the prostate the constant desire to
urinate and defecate, the throbbing pains and the general
constitutional and mental disturbance punishing the patient
with the greatest distress and anguish.
Prognosis. The affection is always exceedingly painful
and the dangers grave. The process may abate in three or
four weeks, but it is liable to pass into an obstinate and
chronic condition which keeps up a persistent sexual neu-
rasthenia and irritability.
If an abscess form, and if it be not early operated upon
by the surgeon, it may result in pyaemia, septicaemia and
death, or it may form a recto-vesical fistula, in which case
there is a free vent between the bladder and rectum. Such
a fistula is exceedingly difficult to heal; and the patient,
continually dribbling urine from his rectum and being con-
stantly pervaded with a strong urinous atmosphere, is an
object of aversion to every one about him. If there have
been extensive suppuration there will be a serious and per-
manent damage to the urinary tract ; the former site of the
prostate being occupied by a shrivelled, hardened and scar-
like mass.
The prognosis is more serious in those who have a poor
constitution, and in those individuals whose will-power
fails to restrain them from venereal excesses or indulgence
in alcohol.
ProstatorrJioea. By this condition is meant the abnormal
flow of a viscid, glycerin-like fluid from the prostate. It
may arise from masturbation, or from direct injuries in
the perineal region received by riding on an improper sad-
dle, or from any influence which inflames the prostate
gland, though gonorrhoea is by far its most frequent cause.
GONORRHCEA. 873
In this condition there is a flow of mucous fluid, some-
times tinged with blood, which wells out in excessive
amount from the prostate into the urethra, sometimes pour-
ing out from the meatus so profusely that the wearing of a
dressing is necessary in order to receive the discharge.
Occasionally the discharge is promoted by the act of defe-
cation.
In prostatorrhcea there is usually an increased frequency
of urination, with pain and a sensation of weight on the
perineum and rectum.
During the first few weeks there is a great increase of
sexual desire, amounting sometimes co a sexual fury ; but
eventually the genitals become cold and flaccid and desire
fails.
Under its effects some men undergo a complete mental,
moral and physical shipwreck, others acquire the habit of
masturbation, while others again are led by their satyriasis
to cohabit with any woman whom they can approach. . An
overwhelming melancholy settles upon some of these pa-
tients, which influences their every thought and action, the
freshness and plumpness of health giving way to emacia-
tion and the pinched and careworn expression which adorns
the advertisements of the charlatan.
If a man who has a chronic prostatitis and prostatorrhcea
acquires a fresh attack of gonorrhosa, it is certain to travel
back to the inflamed and unresistive tissues and there to
luxuriate in an aggravated form. Unfortunately these very
patients, with their sexual neurasthenia and satyriasis, are
probable candidates for contracting fresh infections, being
unrestrained either by love for their neighbors or by the
law of self-preservation.
Inflammation of Cowper's Glands.* These two glands,
each the size of a pea, discharge a viscid mucus into the
urethra by means of two short ducts. It is hence easy to
understand how they may become infected by invasion of
1 Vide illustration, p. 306.
374 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
the gonorrhoeal virus. If one of them become so affected
it may remain indefinitely as a hardened nodule, or it may
suppurate and discharge pus either into the urethra or ex-
ternally. In this manner fistulas sometimes form which
allow the urine to trickle away through the vents.
Peri-Uretliral Abscesses. In many cases of acute gonor-
rhoea the inflammation is not limited to the urethral mucous
membrane, but also implicates some of the numerous fol-
licles and glands which open by minute orifices on its sur-
face. The physician may often distinguish one or more of
these enlarged follicles along the line of the urethra of a
patient in the acute stage, and not infrequently hardened
nodules may be found for months or years after the infec-
tion. Sometimes these nodules remain in the penis and
interfere so much with erection that coitus may be impos-
sible; or they may suppurate and open into the urethra,
or externally, and cause urinary fistulas.
In other cases there are chronic indurations, or hardened
masses, in the substance of the penis in its corpora caver-
nosa which may cause the organ to become distorted when
in a state of erection, or there may be an extensive slough-
ing and destruction of the corpora cavernosa, resulting in
deformity.
Balanitis. In individuals with a too long or too tight
prepuce the gonorrhoeal pus, and other acrid secretions
also, may be retained beneath the foreskin and set up an
active inflammation of the glans penis and inner surface of
the prepuce. This condition cannot develop in those who
are circumcised. It sometimes results in erosion of the
head of the penis, or in gangrene of the prepuce. Buboes,
or inflammatory swelling of the lymphatic glands, may
form in the groins as a result of this condition.
GONORRHOEA. 376
GONOBBHCEA IN WOMEN. 1
Gonorrhoea in the male in attended with such painful
and distinctly marked symptoms that its presence is at
once noticed ; but in the female its early recognition is tho
exception.
After puberty every woman is accustomed to have a pe-
riodical discharge from the genitals, and little surprise is
felt at any leucorrhoeal flow, or at a moderate amount of
local irritation between the menstrual periods. In fact
many women are so accustomed to some vaginal discharge
that they pay little attention to any increase of it, nor do
they hasten to seek for medical advice under these circum-
stances. Discharges which by the naked eye cannot be
distinguished from gonorrhoe amay arise from other causes,
e.g., "catching cold," uterine tumors, polypi, etc.
Even the most unobservant man, having normally no se-
cretion from his genital organs, at once notices the slightest
discharge, besides suffering severe pain, while the woman
may hardly experience any pain at the first onset of the
disease.
If a married woman has contracted gonorrhoea innocently
from her husband, she is of course not informed by either
him or her medical attendant ; and if a woman acquires it
out of wedlock her natural shame leads her to conceal her
plight until she is compelled to seek relief for the remote
effects.
It is notorious as well as surprising that practitioners
rarely see cases of acute gonorrhoea in women, except in
prostitutes, and that their assistance is usually sought, not
on account of the suppuration, but for the relief of the
sequelae, or remote effects, only after irreparable damage
has been done.
1 Vide author's monograph in American Journal of Obstetrics, vol.
xxxiv., No. 3, 1896.
376 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Although gonorrhoea has been clearly recognized from
time immemorial, two decades have not yet elapsed since
the medical profession has learned its true significance and
its great social importance. The chief impetus to the
study of gonorrhoea has come from gynaecologists and ob-
stetricians, who are in the best position to observe its rav-
ages in women ; and to-day we have a mass of accumulated
evidence which puts our ideas regarding this disease on a
firm scientific basis.
The first intelligent cry of alarm was sounded in 1872 '
by Dr. Emil Noeggerath, of New York, a gynaecologist, or
specialist in diseases of women.
His observations led him to conclude that, as Eicord, of
Paris, had previously said, eight hundred out of every
thousand men who lived in large cities had had gonorrhoea ;
that gonorrhoea in males, in spite of apparent recovery,
almost always remained latent for many years or for life;
that ninety per cent of women who married these men
suffered from either acute or latent gonorrhoea ; and that
the majority of these wives were either sterile or bore at
the most from one to three or four children.
The following propositions were presented by him in a
second paper in 1876 : 2
"1. Gonorrhoea in the male, as well as in the female,
persists for life in certain sections of the organs of genera-
tion, notwithstanding its apparent cure in a great many
instances.
" 2. There is a form of gonorrhoea which may be called
latent gonorrhoea, in the male, as well as in the female.
"3. Latent gonorrhoea in the male, as well as in the
female, may infect a healthy person either with acute
gonorrhoea or gleet.
"4. Latent gonorrhoea in the female, either the conse-
quence of an acute gonorrhoeal invasion or not, if it pass
1 " Die latente Gonorrhoe im weiblichen Geschlecht. "
8 Translations, American Gynaecological Society, 1876, p. 273.
GONORRHOEA. 377
from the latent into the apparent condition, manifests itself
as acute, chronic, recurrent perimetritis (inflammation con-
tiguous to uterus) , or ovaritis, or as catarrh of certain sec-
tions of the genital organs.
" 5. Latent gonorrhoea, in becoming apparent in the male,
does so by attacks of gleet or epididymitis.
" 6. About ninety per cent of sterile women are married
to husbands who have suffered from gonorrhoea either pre-
vious to, or during married life."
Noeggerath's assertion, that such a vast amount of dis-
ease, suffering and sterility in women was due to their
marriage with old gonorrhceal patients, most of whom were
supposed to be cured, met with a storm of opposition from
medical men in both hemispheres ; but his dignified answer
was as follows : " After the gentlemen have given five years
or more of careful study to this question, I shall expect to
hear more approval than I have done to-day." At the
present time his name is held in high honor in medical
circles, though his views have been considerably modified,
as is usually the case with the promulgators of new doc-
trines. In the last edition of his standard work on gonor-
rhoea, Finger says: 2 "At first Noeggerath's conclusions
encountered only opposition. ... It was not until the dis-
covery of the gonococcus that this question was cleared up
and Noeggerath's opinions were found to be in the main
correct. "
The conservative belief of recent times is that a very large
number, a majority, of old gonorrhceal patients of both
sexes continue to harbor gonococci within their genito-
urinary spheres for months or years, and sometimes for a
lifetime, unless they have received very intelligent treat-
ment which the most skilful specialists alone are able to
give ; and that a certain proportion never can be cured and
consequently never should marry.
After Noeggerath's stirring propositions, the next im-
*Loc. tit., p. 300. 8 Op. cit. t p. 272, 1893.
378 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
portant advance in our knowledge of gonorrhoea was made
in 1879, when Neisser, 1 of Breslau, proclaimed the discov-
ery of the germ of gonorrhoea, which microbe he named
the " Gonococcus. " This discovery he further substantiated
by a second publication in 1882, 2 and at the present time
this gonococcus is definitely accepted by scientists as the
infective organism, for it has passed through the impera-
tive ordeal of Koch's classical tests: (a), of being present
in every case of gonorrhoea, and in no other disease; (&),
of having been propagated by culture, the new colonies of
germs corresponding to those which are under experimen-
tation; (c), of always reproducing the specific disease
when implanted on human mucous membranes, e.g., the
urethra, conjunctiva, etc.
No specific microbe has been subjected to such furious
opposition as this gonococcus, and for years the contro-
versy continued, until in 1892 an Austrian physician, Wer-
theim, 3 quieted all contention by cultivations of the gono-
cocci in human blood serum and subsequent successful
inoculations of the cultures into healthy male urethrae.
Only since the discovery of this gonococcus has it been
possible accurately to diagnose all the phases of gonorrhoea
in women, and before that important event medical practi-
tioners were quite unable to recognize a large number of
such cases as are those to-day who are not skilled in
microscopy having nothing on which to base their opin-
ions except certain inflammatory conditions in the genital
area quite undistinguishable from other like conditions
which were not gonorrhceal (e.g., the acrid discharges ac-
companying uterine fibroids, polypi, cancers, and catarrhal
inflammatory conditions) .
1 " Ueber eine der Gonorrhoe eigenthumliche Micrococcusform, "
Centralblatt fur die med. Wissenschaften, No. 28, 1879.
2 " Die Micrococcen der Gonorrhoe, " Deutsche med. Wochenschrift,
p. 279.
8 "Die ascendirende Gonorrhoe beim Weibe," 1892 Archiv fur
I, Bd. 42.
GONORRHCEA. 379
Furthermore, in addition to the inability to recognize
the disease even when actively present, it was also unap-
preciated that gonorhoea in women was a most serious affec-
tion, and that its despoilments and ravages within her
internal sexual organs and peritoneal cavity were far more
severe and fatal than those of syphilis.
Frequency of Gonon^hcea in Women. In long-standing
cases of gonorrhoea it is often impossible to distinguish
gonococci in the discharges, and it may be that they can only
be found in the pus and diseased tissues of the ovaries and
Fallopian tubes after removal of these organs by surgical
means. Hence we cannot rely solely on the gonococcus for
diagnosis in all cases, but must also pay careful attention
to the clinical, or bedside, data.
According to Taylor, 1 on account of the greater licen-
tiousness of men, there are approximately thirty cases of
gonorrhoea among them to one case in women.
According to Noeggerath's conclusions eighty per cent of
married women suffer from latent gonorrhoea. Saenger, of
Leipsic, believes that one-eighth of all women who suffer
from diseases peculiar to their sex are infected with gon-
orrhoea; and Sigmund, director of the venereal clinic in
Vienna, found that in seven hundred and fifty-eight public
women, sixty-three per cent were gonorrhoeal.
German authorities impute twenty-three to twenty-eight
per cent of all diseases of the internal sexual organs of
women to gonorrhoea; English and American authorities
place it at seventy per cent.
Pagenstecher, 2 a pupil of Professor Saenger at the gynae-
cological clinic in Leipsic, says : " The result of our studies
regarding the frequency of gonorrhoea in the female sex is
that, according to the mode of living and the morality of
the various classes, it covers from twenty to sixty-three
1 " Venereal Diseases, " p. 172.
'"Gonorrhoea, its Symptoms and Consequences in Both Sexes,"
English translation, p. 66, 1896.
380 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
per cent, which is to say, that in good moral families every
fifth woman has a gonorrhoea, and among the public women
there are two out of three. These figures will surely ap-
pear too high, I know well; yet when we consider that at
least seven out of ten young men have had a case of gonor-
rhoea, and that the most of them are never cured to the point
that they can no more be infectious, we shall then understand
how, after being married, they contaminate their wives, so
that the latter, although virtuous, acquire the gonorrhoea,
for who could give it to them except their husbands?"
Valentine, 1 professor of geni to-urinary diseases at the
New York school of clinical medicine says :
"Noeggerath, of New York, fully thirty years ago,
sounded the first note of alarm in this connection. On
purely clinical grounds he attributed a vast proportion of
death-dealing diseases in women to gonorrhoea which the
husbands had had years before. Noeggerath 's assumption
has been more than borne out by recent science."
These are the views of recognized authorities who cannot
lightly be set aside as extremists. Gonorrhoea is a disease
which lingers in men long after apparent cure, only to in-
fect innocent wives, as well as helpless mistresses, and as
Sinclair 2 says:
" It is the neglected cases of gonorrhoea in the male
those which become chronic which most frequently give
rise to the infection of the female, even though they may
have long ceased to show signs of activity."
However, whether the foregoing statements have been
overdrawn or not, the medical profession has within recent
years unanimously come to a realization of the fact that
gonorrhoea is the principal cause of the so frequent steril-
ity and disease of the sexual organs in women, and that
the suffering and racial degradation from this cause is
appalling.
1 American Medico-Surgical Bulletin, October 1, 1895.
* " On Gonorrhoeal Infection in Women, " London, 1888.
GONORRHOEA. 881
Mode of Onset and Gravity of the Result. In the genital
organs of the female there is a greater extent of mucous
membrane than in the male, and their functions are more
active. Furthermore, there is in woman a direct commu-
nication between the sexual passages and the peritoneal cav-
ity, which renders the consequences far more grave. In
woman gonorrhoea not only tends to become chronic and to
invade the internal sexual organs with destructive changes,
but with each recurrence of menstruation there is also a
likelihood of its renewed activity and further spread ; and
especially does danger threaten if she become pregnant
the results not showing fully until some weeks after the
full-time labor or miscarriage.
Gonorrhoea in an acute form may be imparted to a woman
by a man suffering from acute gonorrhoea ; and an uncured
male with chronic or latent gonorrhoea may communicate
to her the disease in a chronic or latent and sometimes
even in the acute form.
1. In the acute form the initial stage of the disease in
the female, as in the male, usually lasts from two to five
days ; occasionally it supervenes rapidly within the first
day, or is sometimes delayed until the fourteenth day.
After the initial period has passed the discharge becomes
muco-purulent and yellow and consists of pus cells and
serum. In addition to the destructive work of the gono-
cocci, other pathogenic, or disease-generating, microbes
rapidly multiply in the devitalized tissues and modify the
character of the discharges so that they soon become yel-
lowish-green. This simultaneous development of gono-
cocci and other pas-producing microbes is called a " mixed
infection," and it was precisely these adventitious organ-
isms which so long baffled the efforts of investigators to
isolate the gonococci.
On the decline of the purulent stage the secretion becomes
thickened, by the agglutination of the pus-cells with mucus,
so that yellowish-white clumps are present in the urine of
382 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
women as well as in that of men. In these fluffy clumps
called " clap-threads, " or by the Germans " Tripper-faden"
and in the discharges, and in the rugosities and crypts
of the mucous membranes, the gonococci may persist for
months or years. Within the first few days following the
impure intercourse, or after infection by a diseased hus-
band, there occurs a free, purulent secretion from the vulva,
vagina and urethra, i.e., from the external sexual appara-
tus. The inflammation may remain localized there ; but in
course of time, as a rule, it spreads to the uterus, Fallopian
tubes, ovaries and peritoneal tissues in the pelvis, i.e., to
the internal sexual apparatus. So intense may be the
course of the disease that the woman may suffer pitiably
or die from a purulent peritonitis, or from rupture of a
suppurating Fallopian tube.
2. In the chronic, or latent, form the woman may acquire
a gonorrhoea without being able to fix any precise date of
infection, and indeed she may never be aware of the cause
of her illness.
The following supposititious case, illustrative of actual
ones daily seen by practitioners, is cited by Valentine: 1
" A man contracts gonorrhoea. After a time all discharge
and other evidences of the disease disappear. His physi-
cian dismisses him as completely cured.
" Five, ten, or more years later he has almost, if not en-
tirely, dropped from his mind this, with other disagree-
able recollections. He marries a healthy, strong girl.
The young wife soon begins to fade. Yague pains set in.
If her friends love her, she will be twitted with congratula-
tions and advice regarding the presumed coming maternity.
Her form, too, suggests such possibility. But by the time
when, or before, the child that is to make her still more
loved by her husband is expected, it is found necessary to
seek professional advice.
'"When May Gonorrhoeal Patients Marry?" American Medico-
Surgical Bulletin, October 1, 1895.
GONORBHCEA. 383
* A cyst of the ovary, a Fallopian tube filled with pus or
some other dangerous disease, is discovered. An opera-
tion, perilous to life, must be performed to save her. If
she survive, she will no longer be a woman, for she cannot
become a mother. The light of modern microscopy,
brought to bear upon the tumor, cyst, tube, or other sub-
stance removed, shows gonococci. Remember that this
wreck, but a few short months ago a vigorous, healthy
woman, was 'as chaste as ice, as pure as snow.' Eemem-
ber, too, that her husband presented no sensory evidence
of the disease that killed his cherished wife. Killed the
word is advisedly employed for, though she live, she is
worse than dead; she is not only unsexed but also physi-
cally destroyed."
How dismal is the history of many a pure young woman
who marries with all the accompaniments of a perfect wed-
ding celebration ! From their husbands ' latent gonorrhoeas
many of them contract conditions which alter their lives
and even their characters. They suffer from backaches,
leucorrhcea, irregular and painful menstruation, urinary
disorders, external inflammatory conditions, localized peri-
tonitis from escape of gonorrhoeal pus into the abdominal
cavity, enlarged and tender inguinal glands, loss of their
healthful beauty, lassitude, hysteria, dread of the marital
embrace, sterility, abortions and death.
The latent, or chronic, form would not necessarily be
attributed to the husband's fault; the acute form very
probably would be.
It is certainly the duty of every man who has had gonor-
rhoea to abstain from marriage until permission has been
obtained from a trustworthy physician ; and no individual
who expects ever to marry has any right to indulge in sex-
ual impurity.
" If then the young man decides to avail himself of the
offers of those women who sell their questionable favors,
he exposes himself to infection with syphilis and gonor-
384 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
rhoea, both of which may be communicated to an innocent
woman who has the misfortune of marrying him. Syphilis
may cause abortions or give rise to the birth of a syphilitic
child ; gonorrhea leads often to the deplorable condition we
have described above, and is a common cause of blindness
in the newborn if it does not entail sterility.
" A man may be willing to run the risk of being infected
himself, but he has not the right to draw his future wife
and his offspring into his own calamity, so much less so
as their condition caused by his recklessness is infinitely
worse than his own. Many a young man is not only in-
different to, but often proud of having acquired, a disease
which sometimes does not inconvenience him more than a
cold in his head, and yet this slight disease, which even
has a pet name, may cost his future wife her life or result
in lifelong blindness of his child." 1
As previously stated, physicians do not as a rule see the
earlier stages of infection in women, but are called in only
when all the beacon-fires are lighted and burning. Then
they see miserable, suffering wrecks, panting with fever,
with furred tongues and foul breath, with a history of seri-
ous menstrual troubles, with copious and purulent vaginal
discharges, and dreading the pain of examination. In such
cases it is almost always necessary to submit the patients
to the severest surgical operations, cutting open their
abdomens and removing the sexual organs as well as the
pus sacs which have formed around them.
Let us now shortly consider the favorite sites of gonor-
rhceal infection in women.
Gonorrhceal Urethritis. The female urethra, contrary to
former views, is more uniformly infected than any other
part. The period of incubation two to five days and the
general symptoms are much the same as in the male. At
first there is a burning sensation during the prodromal
1 " Protection for the Future Wife and Children, " H. J. Garrigues,
M.D., American Medico-Surgical Bulletin," October 31, 1896.
GONORRHCEA. 385
stage, which becomes aggravated with the onset of the acute
stage, during which a greenish-yellow pus is poured out,
excoriating the surfaces over which it flows.
The urethra in women, being a very short (two and a
half to three inches) and almost straight tube, is very lia-
ble to become infected in its whole length, and by contiguity
the bladder also is frequently involved. With the spread
of the disease to the bladder there is great suffering, which
amounts to agony, frequency of urination, and scalding of
the tissues upon which the urine falls. The urethral dis-
charge may remain infectious for months, and occasionally
the inflammatory condition causes stricture, though not
nearly so frequently as in the male. There is also great
danger of septic infection of the kidneys, which of course
induces invalidism and gravely menaces life.
Gonorrhceal Vaginitis. The vagina is frequently the pri-
mary site of infection. There is the same yellowish-green
discharge, which slowly diminishes in amount and eventu-
ally disappears. The symptoms may be passed over un-
recognized, or there may be intense pain and irritation.
A chronic gonorrhceal vaginitis vaginitis granulosa is
very common in prostitutes, resulting in a characteristic
roughened and leathery condition of the mucous mem-
brane. Broese 1 says: "One can scarcely err if he as-
sumes that all prostitutes are infected with gonorrhoea,
especially if they have exercised their profession for any
length of time. " This roughening of the vaginal mucous
membrane in prostitutes is partly due to gonorrhoea and
partly to the frequent use of astringent injections, employed
with a view to make their vaginae appear virginal in size.
Gonorrhceal Invasion of Bartholms Glands. Bartho-
lin's glands (vulvo- vaginal glands) are two glands situated
on either side of the entrance to the vagina ; each gland
has a diameter of a little over half an inch, and each
1 "Zur Aetiologie, Diagnose und Therapie der weiblichen Gonor-
rhoe, " Deutsche med. Wochenschrift (quoted by Taylor) , 1892.
25
386 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
secretes a lubricating fluid which is poured out on the
vulva just outside the hymen by the intervention of a duct
of small calibre.
When gonococci invade these glands, through the ducts,
they break down into pus sacs of about the size of a hen's
egg and become exquisitely sensitive. It is an extremely
obstinate affection, and recovery without surgical aid is not
to be expected. The gonococci may remain indefinitely in
these glands, and often the only evidence of chronic gonor-
rhoea in women lurks within them. The pus from them is
highly infectious. This affection is very common in pros-
titutes.
Gonorrhoea! Invasion of the Uterus, Fallopian Tubes, Ova-
ries and Peritoneal Cavity. The gravity of the results when
gonorrhoea spreads to the internal sexual organs has been
sufficiently indicated in the preceding pages to render fur-
ther elaboration unnecessary. If a woman contract this
terrible disease we look upon it as a matter of course that
the process will spread in time to her organs of procrea-
tion, unless treatment be successful in destroying all the
gonococci. When once the Fallopian tubes, ovaries and
peritoneum are involved, we are powerless to stop the rav-
ages of the germs, and can only hold ourselves in readiness
for the grave mutilating operation which in most cases be-
comes necessary in order to save life. The objection of
unsexing the women does not apply in these cases, for the
disease has already done that.
Residual, or Latent Symptoms of. Gonorrlicea which are
Characteristic. Gonorrhoea, unlike syphilis, leaves no deep
scars, but nevertheless characteristic alterations are left on
the surface of the mucous membranes, which render it pos-
sible for the expert to affirm that the woman has at some
time had the disease. Saenger, of Leipsic, calls these
chronic conditions "residual gonorrhoea," while others em-
ploy Noeggerath's term of " latent gonorrhoea." Instead of
ulcers, as in syphilis, there are left behind certain inflam-
GONORRHCEA. 387
matory areas, which Professor Saenger calls "gonorrhoeal
maculae." These pathological spots, or maculae, remain
for long periods of time, or even permanently, and from
them there is a " migration," or exudation of leucocytes, or
white blood corpuscles (phagocytes), within which gono-
cocci are embedded.
As long as the specific infection remains localized in the
vagina and other external parts of the sexual apparatus
there is no great menace to the patient's health or life, ap-
parently, but on account of the periodicity in women the
disease, as pointed out heretofore, is always liable to in-
vade the internal organs of procreation, and almost certain
to do so if the woman become pregnant. In pregnancy
the enlargement of the uterus facilitates the spread of the
disease by opening up the passages of communication, and
especially after childbirth or a miscarriage there is almost
a certainty that the cavity of the uterus will become in-
volved, owing to the physiological denudation at the pla-
cental site whereby an open wound is left.
In those cases where gonorrhoea has spread to the in-
ternal genital organs there is almost surely a complete de-
struction of their normal functions ; and in many instances
the uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, intestines and bladder
are matted together by peritoneal adhesions into a compact
mass, so as to render the patient a complete invalid. If
operative interference be attempted, as it usually must be,
the difficulties presented are extraordinary. These resid-
ual signs in the internal structures, though not so conclu-
sive as the external maculae, afford ground for referring
the cause to gonorrhoea, though other conditions may pro-
duce very similar results.
Sterility from Gonorrhoea. Gonorrhoea is characterized
by its great tendency to cause sterility, while the tendency
of syphilis is to bring about abortion after abortion. Thus
nature protects the future of the human race from a pre-
ponderance of vicious offspring. Women who are married
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
to men who have old, uncured gonorrhoeas gonococci-bear-
ing men may remain in fairly good health till the first
pregnancy, after which, as explained, they are liable to be-
come sterile and to require the gravest surgical operations.
The trouble does not usually manifest itself actively until
several weeks after childbirth, and thus the correct diag-
nosis is generally missed. Saenger calls this " one-child
sterility." Many years subsequently, perhaps, another
child may be born, but usually the sterility is brought
about completely at the first parturition. Of course the
wives of many old gonorrhoeal men never have even the one
child the uterus and ovaries becoming embedded in exu-
dations very early after marriage.
" In investigating the causes of sterility, so pronounced
among the women of France, the commission charged to
study this question reached the following results, ' viz :
" Twenty-four per cent of all the French marriages were
marked with a complete sterility.
" Twenty per cent more never had more than one child,
and if the authors of the above statistics have given out
that the principal cause of this surprising phenomenon was
the syphilis so general in France, the German physicians
have the conviction that it was also greatly due to gonor-
rhoea, without at the same time denying the evil influence
of syphilis." 2
In addition to these causes criminal abortion is also an
important factor in keeping down the birth rate.
Husbands often lie when questioned about their previ-
ous gonorrhoeas, and women, as a rule, are less truthful
and communicative regarding their amours than men. But
notwithstanding this, the careful physician can often quite
accurately conclude whether a woman has had gonorrhoea
by learning (1), the history of the first childbirth; (2),
whether a second pregnancy ever resulted; (3), whether
1 Ohervin : Bulletin de V Academic, October 30, 1888.
8 Pagengtecher, loc. cit., p. 95.
GONORRHOEA. 389
the child's eyes were infected shortly after birth; and (4),
the state of the mother's health thereafter. 1
In sterile marriages it is quite the ride for the husband
to put the blame upon the wife, but in a large number of
instances he himself has either caused her sterility, or is
impotent to procreate.
COMPLICATIONS OF GONORRHEA COMMON TO BOTH SEXES.
It has been deemed necessary to devote a relatively large
amount of space to the foregoing descriptions of gonorrhoea
in the male and female. In few words it would be impos-
sible to combat the prevalent erroneous ideas regarding
this disease, and forcibly to impress upon the reader the
very important fact that it is one of the most pernicious of
all maladies. Much could yet be said upon this topic, but,
having explained the general history of the disease as it
exists locally in the sexual organs, we must condense our
remarks on the remaining manifestations. However, the
reader must not, because of this condensation, assume that
the following affections are in any way trivial, for some of
them represent the most aggravated and dangerous of the
phases of gonorrhoea. So far in our study of this disease
we have only observed it as a local disorder causing mis-
chief at sites where gonococci were implanted. But in a
certain number of cases these organisms are carried in the
blood-stream to remote parts of the body, where they con-
tinue their tendency to cause suppuration. When this un-
toward result occurs, the gonococci thriving in the joints,
heart, brain, or elsewhere, the conditions are uncontrollable
by any medical measures, and little can be done, outside
of careful nursing, except to watch the uncertain course of
the disease.
Gonomhoeal Inflammation of the Kidneys and Bladder.
Invasion of the bladder often occurs by direct-propagation
1 Of course it must not be assumed that all cases of complete
sterility or of " one-child sterility" are to be attributed to gonorrhoea.
390 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and spread of the gonococci from the urethra, or by artifi-
cial implantation if a catheter has carried the organisms
down from that passage. On the other hand, if gonococci
are circulating in the blood, they may be eliminated with
the urine through the kidneys and thus invade them.
Buboes. Inflammation and suppuration of the inguinal
glands sometimes occur as the result of gonorrhoea, though
the same condition may result from chancroid, syphilis,
cancer, tuberculosis, and other affections.
Peritonitis. In the female we saw that peritonitis was
exceedingly common as a result of the escape of gonorrhoeal
pus from the Fallopian tubes into the peritoneal cavity.
In the male, peritonitis may also occasionally be caused,
not by direct contamination as in the female, but by mi-
gration of the gonococci through the tissues, e.g., when
the seminal vesicles, which lie in close relationship to the
peritoneum, are involved. Intense suffering is always the
rule, and death is very frequently the result.
Gonorrhoeal Rheumatism. This affection is a form of
septic infection and is in no way akin to ordinary rheuma-
tism. It is more common in men because gonorrhoea is
far more prevalent among them ; but it may occur in either
sex at any age, even in an infant suffering with gonorrhoeal
inflammation of the eyes.
It usually develops from two to four months after the
local infection in the sexual organs. It is caused by gon-
ococci entering the blood-stream and being carried to
remote parts. The knee-joint is most frequently involved,
and, next in frequency, the ankle, wrist, finger-joints,
elbow, shoulder, hip, jaw, etc. Many joints, however,
may be involved at the same time. The tendency of gon-
ococci, wherever situated, is to promote suppuration, and
not infrequently an ankylosis results in the affected joint,
whereby the bones which enter into its formation coalesce,
or grow together, so that consolidation or stiffening occurs.
As complications of gonorrhoeal rheumatism there may also
GONORRHOEA. 391
be serous effusions into the sheaths of tendons, various
inflammations in the eyeball, in the large veins, in the
brain, heart, etc. With each new infection of gonorrhoea
there is a great tendency to relapse. Taylor 1 says that it
occurs in ten per cent of gonorrhoeal cases. Treatment is
exceedingly unsatisfactory, no drug being known which
antagonizes the activity of the gonococci, and in many in-
stances it becomes necessary for the surgeon to open the
joint and wash out the purulent synovial fluids with germi-
cides. The severest constitutional effects are as liable to
follow upon a mild case of gonorrhoea as upon a severe
attack ; and in no case can the physician give assurance that
grave septic infections will not result.
Gonorrhceal Affections of the Heart, and Pyaemia (septic
contamination of the blood). Since the discovery of the
gonococcus a number of well-attested cases of gonorrhoeal
affections of the heart have been reported, usually occur-
ring as complications of gonorrhoeal rheumatism, but not
necessarily so.
The gonococci produce ulcerative conditions on the valves
of the heart, leaving permanent damage behind and making
the prognosis grave. Sometimes the microbes are present
in such number in the blood that they produce a blood-
poisoning and abscesses; and other inflammatory condi-
tions may appear in any organ or tissue of the body. The
mildest attacks of gonorrhoea may be followed by these
constitutional symptoms.
Gonorrhceal Conjunctivitis and Gonorrhoeal Ophthalmia.
These specific infections of the eye characteristically show
the action of the gonococci, the one as a result of local in-
fection, the other as a result of systemic invasion.
Of the two, gonorrhoeal ophthalmia is the more frequent,
while gonorrhoeal conjunctivitis is the more grave.
Gonorrh&al ophthalmia results secondarily from sep-
ticsemic infection and is quite uncontrollable by any line of
1 Loc. eit. t p. 261.
392 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
treatment, but fortunately its results are not usually grave.
It is very frequently associated with gonorrhoeal rheuma-
tism, and as a rule recurs with each fresh infection. Ordi-
narily both eyes are involved, and the inflammation chiefly
affects the fibrous tissues of the eye, the sclerotic and the
iris.
Gonorrhoeal conjunctivitis is produced primarily by direct
contagion, or the local deposition of gonorrhceal pus upon
the mucous membrane of the eye. Ordinarily one eye is
involved, though of course this is fortuitous. As this con-
dition is purely an accident, resulting from contamination
by the fingers, or towels, or otherwise, it may be acquired
readily by a healthy person from an infected one by inocu-
lation. The symptoms are among the most urgent and
grave of all the emergencies which arise in medical prac-
tice, for every hour's delay favors a rapid destruction of
the tissues involved. Without the most energetic treat-
ment the free discharge of pus is extremely liable to inocu-
late the other eye, and rapidly to ulcerate the cornea, so
that the contents of the globe, or eyeball, may pour out,
and thus the case terminates in total blindness. Every
gonorrhoeal patient is therefore the generator of a most
virulent poison, one drop of which carried to his eye would,
within the space of two or three days, cause complete blind-
ness, unless active treatment were at once instituted. And,
furthermore, so " unclean" and positively dangerous to the
community is such an individual, that he should be quar-
antined ; for but few such men can be relied upon to exer-
cise care in the use of towels, commodes, bathtubs, etc.,
which others must use.
Gonorrhoeal Affections of the Skin. Instances of cutane-
ous eruptions are rare, and on that account interesting.
Having observed that the gonococci may enter the blood-
stream and thus invade the whole system, it is not, after
all, difficult to understand that the minute capillaries of
the skin may show their presence by eruptions.
GONORRHOEA. 893
A number of such cases have been reported, those only
being accepted in which gonococci were demonstrated in
the pus from the eruptions.
GONORRHCEA IN THE INFANT.
An infant or child of either sex can as readily be infected
as an adult if gonococci are inoculated on any of its mucous
membranes, e.g., the sexual organs, eyes, mouth, nose, rec-
tum, etc. In certain instances wicked nurses have taken
the grossest liberties with helpless children and contami-
nated them with a secret disease, whose true nature very
naturally might be unsuspected by either parents or phy-
sician.
But these rare cases are of minor importance in compari-
son with the terrible and frequent gonorrrhoeal infection
of infants' eyes. This inoculation of the new-born infant
usually occurs during its birth through the infected maternal
passages, and is called "ophthalmia neonatorum."
A German accoucheur, Professor Crede, of Dresden, won
for himself immortal renown by giving to the profession, in
the early eighties, a method of treatment which rendered
it possible almost to eliminate the terrors of this fearful
affection in new-born babes. In his obstetrical wards he
found that the infants' eyes could almost invariably be
saved from contamination if, immediate^ after birth, a
solution of nitrate of silver, two grains to ten grains to the
ounce, were instilled into both eyes, whether there appeared
any need of it or not. At the present time these preventive
instillations are uniformly employed in every maternity
hospital in the civilized world, and it is considered a great
reproach to the medical attendants and nurses if a single
case of ocular infection occur. In Professor Saenger's clinic
in Leipsic, in 1879, forty per cent of the infants born of
gonorrhceal mothers were affected with ophthalmia neona-
torum. But after Crede' s method was instituted, the pro-
394 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
portion of infection was reduced to two per thousand.
Midwives preside over the births of a vast number of chil-
dren, and the state is unfortunately too lax in granting them
licenses. As a result there is yet a great amount of blind-
ness from this cause, although the simple means of pre-
venting it are well recognized.
" If justification were needed for the discussion of this
matter, it would be found in the statistics of the German
Empire for 1894. These show that of the women who died
of uterine or ovarian diseases, eighty per cent were killed
by gonorrhoea. They further show that of children who
became hopelessly blind, after having been born with
healthy eyes, eighty per cent went into a life of darkness
from gonorrhoea. " *
The blessings of sight are thus denied to many a poor
child through the careless apathy of its natural protectors.
NOTE. It is possible that the non-professional reader may receive
the impression that gonorrhoea always causes the results described
in this chapter. These occur in but a part of the cases.
By no means every man who has had gonorrhoea infects his wife
in later years. The idea that this must occur would cause needless
suffering to many men. It certainly is not the author's intention
to convey such an impression.
But the danger is very real and very great and it is surely not
going too far to insist that no man who has ever had the disease has
a right to marry until assured after examination by a competent
expert that he may safely do so. ED.
F. C. Valentine, M.D. : "The Protection of the Innocent from
Gonorrhoea." The Medical Fortnightly, October 15, 1896.
CHAPTEE X.
CHANCROID.
THE chancroid is a local and highly contagious ulcer,
very destructive in its course and usually followed by en-
largement and suppuration of the lymphatic glands in
immediate anatomical relationship with it. As a rule it is
situated on the genital organs, though it may be reproduced
by inoculation on any part of the body.
The chancroid is otherwise called the " soft chancre" in
contradistinction to the " hard chancre" of syphilis. It is
entirely a local affection, never producing constitutional
after-effects and not being transmissible to posterity. It
does not usually endanger the patient's life, though it may
terminate fatally from a concomitant erysipelas; or by
deeply eroding the tissues it may cause a serious stricture.
At the best it leaves compromising scars behind, and in
severe cases it sometimes causes such extensive destruction
of tissue that amputation of the penis may become neces-
sary.
The pus from the primary sore, if inoculated on abraded
surfaces, is capable of infecting the patient himself in a
number of places, while the primary sore of syphilis has
not this characteristic.
One attack does not confer immunity, and an individual
may have chancroids time and time again. Furthermore,
the pus from a chancroid, in contradistinction to the virus
of syphilis, is readily transmissible to animals.
These contrasts with syphilis are made because the two
diseases were confused and erroneously interpreted until
recent times.
396 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Cause. It is now accepted by most authorities that
chancroid is invariably produced by the inoculation of virus
from another chancroid. Some authorities believe that the
chancroidal ulcer is not due to a distinct virus, ' but that it
is a hybrid and heterogeneous disease; that it may origi-
nate de novo from local uncleanliness, and that it may be
caused by inoculation of various kinds of pus-producing
microbes staphylococci, streptococci, etc. on excoriated
or abraded surfaces.
On the other hand Ducrey, Welander, Krefting and
others 2 maintain that there is a definite micro-organism,
or bacillus, which has been satisfactorily demonstrated to
be the specific cause. The clinical history, after experi-
mental inoculations with chancroidal pus, argues strongly
in favor of its being a distinct lesion and not a hybrid dis-
ease.
In almost all cases it is acquired during sexual inter-
course, and is therefore commonly situated on the genitalia.
But it may as readily be inoculated extra-genitally when-
ever the virus is applied to an abrasion, e.g., on the lips,
nose, eyes, thighs, abdomen, or any cutaneous or mucous
surface. Surgeons are sometimes accidentally inoculated
on the fingers, and the virus may be carried on towels,
drinking-cups, utensils and instruments of all sorts.
Mode of Onset. There is no period of incubation, but
the ulcer is quickly developed after the deposit of the mi-
crobes on ihe abraded spot, usually on the head of the
penis and on the prepuce. It may appear in twenty-four
hours, or may not be noticed by a careless patient for a
week or so. The chancroidal ulcer, differing from that of
syphilis, is soft, and presents sharply-defined edges in a
characteristic manner, as though the tissues had been cut
out with a punch.
1 Vide Taylor : "Venereal Diseases," p. 481, 1895.
8 Vide White and Martin: "Genito-Urinary and Venereal Dis-
eases, " p. 274, 1897.
CHANCROID. 397
Frequency. J.i is more frequent in syphilitic patients
because that disease predisposes to it. Therefore it is
specially common among the lower-class prostitutes, and
among men who are ignorant and careless about all matters
relating to sexual affairs. In many prostitutes it remains
indolent and lingers for years.
Complications. Sometimes there is gangrene and con-
siderable loss of tissue, resulting in great deformity. Some-
times the penis is destroyed, or the testicles may be laid
bare by destruction of the scrotum. These severe cases,
however, are seldom seen except in patients who are much
debilitated by syphilis, or by other profoundly depressing
diseases, such as diabetes, tuberculosis, diseases of kidneys,
liver, etc. This gangrenous form sometimes lasts for years
without healing.
The most frequent complication is a bubo, or glandular
swelling. Supposing the sore to be on the penis, the
poison is conveyed by the lymphatic vessels to the nearest
group of glands, which are situated in the groins. Usually
only a single gland in one groin is involved, though the
whole packet of glands in both groins may become indu-
rated and eventually break down into pus.
No micrococci are found in these buboes, but they are
caused by toxins, or chemical irritants, produced by the
organisms at the site of the lesion on the penis.
The pain of buboes is sometimes intense, and the exten-
sive suppuration, with escape of the pus into the surround-
ing tissues, often leaves deforming cicatrices from the pro-
longation of the healing process.
Treatment. Many cases heal spontaneously, but surgical
dressing or operation is usually necessary. It is very gen-
erally advisable to excise the enlarged gland, or bubo, while
in other cases circumcision is indicated. In the severest
cases it may become necessary to amputate the penis or to
castrate the patient on account of the extensive destruction
of the scrotum.
CHAPTEE XI.
SYPHILIS. 1
Historical. No dogmatic expression is possible as to the
origin and antiquity of syphilis. Certain facts are defi-
nitely known, while other mere conjectures persuade some
and repel others. Dr. F. Buret 2 has written a scholarly
work purporting to prove that it was known more than five
thousand years ago among the Asiatics, the Romans, the
Greeks and the Egyptians. Many regard his demonstra-
tion as conclusive.
Captain Dabray 3 refers to the works of Hoan-ty, written
2637 B.C., who graphically describes what would fairly
seem to be typical cases of syphilis. In short, there is a
very large amount of literature on the history of this dis-
ease, but little likelihood of the question of its origin ever
being positively settled.
Nothing however is better known historically than that
syphilis was rampant as an epidemic and pandemic in
Europe almost coincidently with the discovery of the New
World by Columbus.
1 For a fuller description of this enormous subject, and for illus-
trations, all of which are repulsive in the extreme, consult the vari-
ous text-books and atlases on venereal diseases. The horrors of
syphilis being in a measure known to every mature person, it is
not deemed necessary to give the same space to its consideration as
to that of its congener, gonorrhoea, which is, as we have pointed
out, in many respects more thankless to treat and more terrible in its
results than even syphilis.
"Syphilis in the Middle Ages and in Modern Times," translated
by Ohman-Dumesnil, 3 vols.
"La Medecine chez les Chinois," 1863.
400 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
"The epidemic of syphilis which stands out so boldly in
medical history occurred about the time (the latter part of
the year 1494) when Charles "VHL, king of France, with a
large army, invaded Italy with the intent of taking posses-
sion of the kingdom of Naples, -which he claimed by right
of inheritance. Charles left Rome on his way to Naples
January 28, and reached the latter city February 21,
1495. After a time the Neapolitans revolted against the
authority of Charles, and, aided by a Spanish army under
the command of Gonsalvo of Cordova, they endeavored to
drive the French out of Italy. There were then three
armies encamped near Naples, and about this time the
fearful epidemic broke out. It is not definitely established
that the disease first appeared among the troops, but they
certainly were attacked, and were one means of conveying
the disease into other countries. There is ample evidence
to prove that within a few years the disease had spread
over the greater part of Europe. Thus we find that syphi-
lis was by the Neapolitans called the morbus Gallicus, by
the French mal de Naples, and was also called the Polish,
Spanish, Turkish, and Christian disease. It was also
named after some saints, and was called the disease of the
holy man Job, of St. Leonard, St. Clement, St. Mevius,
and St. Roche. It was not known as the American disease
until twenty years after the return of Columbus from his
first trip." 1
We may conclude from historical readings that there is
great probability that syphilis existed in remote antiquity,
and that with the widespread libertinism in Europe at the
latter part of the fifteenth century it redeveloped in France,
Italy and Spain with hitherto unknown virulence, and that
it was subsequently carried wherever Europeans travelled
until it has come to be enormously prevalent in modern
times, even infecting many aboriginal tribes.
Syphilis is especially malignant when occurring in a
Baylor: "Venereal Diseases," p. 20.
SYPHILIS. 401
community for the first time in the great historical Euro-
pean outbreak whole families were destroyed and the most
revolting deformities and loathsome eruptions were com-
mon. Similar malignity has been shown by recent out-
breaks among the savage tribes of this continent, and in
other localities, for civilized races are now mildly protected
by the syphilis which was worked out with special fury on
their ancestors.
Nature of Syphilis. Syphilis is a chronic, infectious and
inoculable disease, transmissible to posterity. It begins
with a local " sore," or " chancre," called the " initial lesion,"
which is the result of the inoculation from another syphi-
litic individual of a special and peculiar virus, the minutest
portion of which is sufficient to communicate the disease.
In many respects syphilis resembles the exanthematous
fevers (small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, etc.), having a
period of incubation, invasion, eruption, persistence, de-
cline and convalescence. Like them it is attended with
practical immunity from a second attack, at least for long
periods of time, though second attacks of syphilis are
almost as well authenticated as second attacks of the con-
tagious fevers.
Unlike them, however, in untreated cases the period
corresponding to convalescence is prolonged for the re-
mainder of the patient's life, during which time grave in-
juries are occurring in various parts of the body.
In some respects it also resembles leprosy and tubercu-
losis, producing a proliferation of new and foreign cells in
the tissues, and being protracted and progressive in its
nature. In its later manifestations syphilis is remarkable
in simulating almost every other disease without exactly
resembling any of them. This is not difficult to under-
stand when we consider that the infection eventual ly
invades every organ and tissue in the body, producing
functional and orgaoic changes in them which may cause
disorders of almost any kind.
26
402 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
This disease is remarkably common among the vicious,
rich and poor alike ; and by them it is often transmitted to
the innocent members of the family circle.
Cause. Though absolute proof is still wanting, it is now
accepted that the disease is almost certainly associated with
the growth of a micro-organism, or bacterium, of vegetable
origin. In 1884, Lustgarten, of Yienna, announced the dis-
covery of a bacillus which he believed to be the cause of
syphilis ; and lately there has been much confirmative evi-
dence, especially from Doutrelepont and Klemperer, who
have devised special stains for differentiating the bacillus.
No cultivations of these organisms having been made out-
side the human body the inoculation of monkeys by Klebs
not being as yet satisfactory we must at present provi-
sionally accept this bacillus of Lustgarten, believing that
trustworthy details of proof will shortly come. A minute
portion of the virus or of the blood of a syphilitic being
inoculated into another individual, through an abrasion
however small, or by absorption through a mucous surface,
the microbes rapidly multiply until a " colony" is locally
developed. A local ulcer is then produced in which the
organisms have elaborated certain poisonous chemical sub-
stances called toxins, or ptomains, or virus. This virus
is then diffused through the whole system and the char-
acteristic phenomena of syphilis appear, such as fever, de-
bility, headaches, a distinctive rash, sore throat, falling
out of the hair, and the eventual production of a peculiar
growth of cells called "granulation tissue" which pro-
duce most serious effects.
Varieties of Syphilis. 1. The acquired form, beginning
with a primary sore, or "hard chancre," as the result of
inoculation, and followed by constitutional symptoms.
2. Hereditary, or prenatal syphilis, in which one or both
parents are actively syphilitic at the time of conception of
the embryo. In this form there is no primary sore, but a
general systemic infection acquired in utero.
SYPHILIS. 403
At present we shall consider the first form.
Modes of Acquiring Syphilis . Syphilis is almost always
derived by impure sexual intercourse, and is hence called a
venereal disease, although a considerable proportion of
cases are acquired unconsciously and innocently and with-
out an impure history. The cases of extra-genital syphilis,
i.e., those which are not associated with lasciviousness, are
classified as "unmerited syphilis," or "syphilis of the in-
nocent" ("syphilis insontium").
A syphilitic person is a menace to the community in
which he lives, and in strict justice he should be quaran-
tined until his disease has passed beyond the stage wherein
he is capable of contaminating others. The secretion from
his primary sore is highly virulent, as are those from the
mucous patches which appear in his mouth and on his lips,
anus and genitalia. For at least two to three years after
infection, even under treatment, his blood and the debris
from any pustule, pimple, or ulcer are infectious, and he
renders more or less unsafe every article which he touches.
This has been proved by experimental inoculations: It
is of course wrong to permit such a person to send his
clothing to the public laundry, or to jeopardize others in
innumerable other ways; and the time may come when
such will be as promptly quarantined as are the victims
of small-pox.
The virus from a patient who is infected with syphilis
"the big-pox" can inoculate another person through a
crack or abrasion in the skin too small to be noticed, or
even through an intact mucous membrane. " My studies
and observations have convinced me that in the majority of
cases in which the treatment has been ample and well di-
rected a cure is obtained in two or three years, and then,
of course, the subject does not give forth infectious secre-
tions. " ' But until the expiration of this time the syphilitic
is a dangerous element in society, and it cannot be said
1 Taylor : M Venereal Diseases, " p. 536.
404 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
that " ample and well-directed treatment" is followed in a
majority of cases.
The normal secretions of a syphilitic, i.e., the saliva,
tears, sweat, urine, semen and milk, are not in themselves
contagious ; but if one microscopically minute blood-cor-
puscle, or a mere particle of tissue-detritus exude with any
of these secretions into an abrasion on another individual,
infection will follow. Thus, since sore patches in the
mouth and about the genitals and on the skin surfaces are
common, it is unsafe, from a practical standpoint, to be ex-
posed even to the normal secretions of an infected person.
In order to acquire syphilis there must be contamination
with the virus from another infected person in some way.
This may be (a) by direct, or immediate contact; (6) by
indirect, or mediate contact.
Infection by Direct Contact. In the majority of in-
stances syphilis is both acquired and given during the
impure sexual act. By some other beastly practices it is
also spread, and many an individual, thinking merely to
play with prostitutes without actual fornication, has been
inoculated. Thus, the lascivious kisses of syphilitic pros-
titutes suffering with mucous patches in their mouths, have
often caused chancres on the lips. But aside from venereal
practices the disease may be acquired in various other ways
by direct contact. Doctors and dentists are sometimes
inoculated upon their fingers in operations upon syphilitic
patients. It has been imparted by careless physicians in
the operation of vaccination, and not infrequently by pro-
fessional tattooers who moisten the needles and pigment
with their saliva. The kisses of syphilitic men have often
inoculated wives and pure young children, and in numerous
other ways it may be directly communicated.
Infection by Indirect or Mediate Contact. Through the
intervention of innumerable articles of daily use syphilis has
often been communicated to innocent persons. Taylor l
I 0p. eit., p. 539.
SYPHILIS. 405
gives the following list of articles which have been the
agents of infection : " Cigars, cigar- and cigarette-holders,
pipes, tooth-brushes, tooth-powders, drinking-utensils,
knives, forks, spoons, razors, towels, sponges, pillows,
masks, gloves, wash-rags, linen thread, silk thread, pins,
needles, children's toys, nursing-bottles, rubber tubes,
babies' rubber rings, trousers, women's drawers, bandages,
surgical and cupping instruments, manicure instruments,
syringes, scarifiers, dental instruments and appliances,
caustic-holders, blowpipes, paper-cutters, lead-pencils,
speaking-trumpets, musical instruments, fish-horns, whis-
tles, the mouth-piece of the telephone, chewing-jjum, and
even pastilles and candy."
Laundresses have been inoculated by washing the
clothes of syphilitics ; chancres have been acquired on the
knuckles by striking the teeth of diseased men in fights ;
and in fact there is no limit to the articles which may be
the vehicles of infection. Chancres of the lip have been
acquired from the communion-cup by infection with the
virus which syphilitics have smeared on the rim from the
mucous patches in their mouths. The neglect to provide
individual communion-cups is inexcusable for even though
a syphilitic man might not be apt to attend this solemn
service, yet not a few religious wives have been innocently
infected by their husbands, without, of course, being in-
formed, and such menace all who use the cup after them.
The mere reflection that syphilis and tuberculosis are lia-
ble to be transmitted in this way should promptly lead all
to insist on the same etiquette and decency being observed
in this sacred rite as we demand even in the home circle, of
having a separate cup for each individual.
So also the custom of making witnesses kiss the Bible
when oaths are administered is repulsive, for syphilitic
virus is readily implanted on it from the mucous patches
in the mouths of infected persons.
Mode of Onset. Syphilis invariably begins with a " sore,"
406 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
which is called the "initial lesion," or "chancre"; it is
called the "hard," or "Hunterian chancre," to distinguish
it from the " soft sore" of chancroid. Three distinct stages
are recognized the primary, secondary and tertiary.
Tlie Primary Stage. At the date of the infecting contact,
whether by coitus or otherwise, some of the virus is im-
planted at the site where the chancre is to develop gen-
itally or extra-genitally. Then for a certain period, called
the stage of incubation, nothing whatever betrays the dis-
ease. This incubation period lasts from ten to seventy
days, but, as a rule, in the neighborhood of twenty-one
days, the extreme limits of rapid or tardy development
being unusual. Then a sore is noticed which at first is not
indurated, but in ten or fourteen days more it displays the
typical signs of the true hard chancre. Now comes a pe-
riod of repose, lasting usually for from forty to ninety
days, during which interval the patient is merely incon-
venienced by the local sore.
The Secondary Stage. After this period of seeming qui-
escence comes the secondary period, or period of constitu-
tional invasion, when the virus seems to explode, as it
were. The patient now suffers with languor, headaches,
shooting pains in the limbs, trunk and head, falling out
of the hair, sore throat, eruptions on the skin and mucous
membranes, enlargement of the lymphatic glands through-
out the whole system, and peculiar milk-white patches upon
the mucous membranes of the mouth and anus. With all
this there is fever, neuralgia and considerable suffering.
This condition lasts for one or two years, during which
time the eruptions, though extremely repulsive, are chiefly
superficial and tolerably mild in their effect on the general
health.
Until the characteristic signs of the secondary stage
have appeared, no anti-syphilitic treatment whatever is
given by the physician ; otherwise the diagnosis would be
obscure and irreparable harm might follow.
SYPHILIS. 407
The tertiary stage usually comes on, in untreated cases,
at the expiration of two years. In this stage the lesions
are mostly found in the deeper parts of the body, causing
caries of the bones and other severe complications in the
central nervous system and in any or all of the vital organs.
It represents the gravest aspect of the disease, and may
continue to cause ominous manifestations for the remainder
of life. Syphilis being often compared with the exanthe-
matous fevers, this tertiary stage corresponds with the
period of convalescence in them ; but in this disease it will
be noticed that convalescence is prolonged for a lifetime if
the malady be allowed to work out its natural course un-
modified by treatment.
The division between these three periods in not invari-
ably sharply defined, and sometimes they coexist.
Pathology, or a Consideration of the Characteristic Prog-
ress of the Disease. The virus having been, elaborated by
the "colony" of bacteria at the site of the "initial lesion,"
it is then absorbed and disseminated throughout the entire
system, producing certain deleterious effects of a protean,
or exceedingly variable nature. Transformations then fol-
low in the body which cause the disease to be classified
along with leprosy, tuberculosis, actinomycosis, etc. the
"infective granulomata. "
The peculiar effect of the poison is to produce certain
cells which, when aggregated, result in the formation of
what is called "granulation tissue," "connective tissue," or
tissue akin to "proud-flesh" from which scars are gen-
erated. When these deposits of granulation tissue which
may appear in any part of the body are young, they are
vascular and proliferative ; but soon the blood-vessels in
them become fewer, their nourishment is cut off, and they
necrose, or die at their centres, eventually becoming cica-
trized and causing profound nutritive changes in the vari-
ous normal structures of the body.
In the secondary, and especially in the tertiary stages of
408 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
syphilis, i.e., when the process has become constitutional,
this proliferation of granulation-tissue is especially active,
involving the blood-vessels and lymphatics and forming
new growths, called "gummata," which have a special
predilection for invading the central nervous system and
the vital organs. The earliest change produced by consti-
tutional syphilis is an alteration in the blood whereby the
red blood-corpuscles are much diminished in number and
impaired in nutritive qualities, so that marked ansemia
results. The virus next involves the lymphatic system,
producing enlargements in all the superficial and deep
lymphatic glands, those in the neck and on the inner sur-
faces of the elbows being specially prominent on account of
their readily accessible positions.
Along with this glandular enlargement there always is
fever, usually slightly marked (102-103 F.), but some-
times very high (103-105 F.). With the fever there are
loss of appetite, listlessness, depression of spirits, severe
neuralgias, intense headache, great tenderness and pain in
the bones, of a "bone-breaking" character, pains in the
muscles and joints, and sometimes hysteria, insomnia,
hallucinations, delusions, delirium, mania and various
morbid impulses and aberrations of mind.
Then come the characteristic syphilitic eruptions of the
skin and mucous membranes, of almost endless variety.
Almost invariably there is a compromising falling out of
the hair, which may result in slight or complete baldness,
and various "syphilides," or granulation-tissue deposits,
develop over the body, showing a characteristic coppery
color and a tendency to form scales. Along with all these
symptoms, which have been merely touched upon, there
are often grave manifestations involving the eyes, brain and
spinal cord, the osseous system, the testicles, liver, spleen,
pancreas, kidneys, and all the other organs and structures
of the body. . Let us here borrow the words of the most
eminent modern syphilographer, Fournier, who is quoted
SYPHILIS. 409
by Taylor in his text-book ' as follows (the parentheses are
the author's) :
" Is it or is it not necessary to treat a syphilitic patient?
Is it or is it not beneficial that he should be treated? In
order to answer a proposition thus stated, let us consider
what risks such a patient runs, by stating his condition
clearly. To what dangers, in fact, is he exposed? Let us
set forth his. pathological balance-sheet, if I may speak
thus a balance-sheet which, if not certain and inevitable,
is at least probable and possible. What can such a patient
have? What lesions is he liable to develop some day or
other? And these lesions, are they of such a character
that it will be urgent or advantageous that they should be
treated? What he can have are at first lesions without any
real gravity, but which are at least very disagreeable to
some, particularly if they are visible : thus he may have
cutaneous syphilides of various forms, very annoying
syphilides of the mucous membranes, engorgements of the
ganglia, alopecia (falling out of hair), and onyxis (distor-
tions of the nails). In the second place, there are more
serious lesions, from the fact that some of them are very
painful : they are angina, cephalalgia (head pains), various
pains with nocturnal exacerbations, insomnia, myalgia
(muscular pains), pain in the joints, inflammation of ten-
dons, periostitis, etc. Should not the possible anticipation
of such troubles justify the intervention of treatment? But
we have really a third order of lesions, which are much more
serious and which may involve and compromise important
organs. Only to cite the most common of this group, we
shall find affections of the eye, such as iritis, choroiditis,
and retinitis, which are capable of impairing or even ex-
tinguishing vision ; sarcocele, which may induce disorgani-
zation and atrophy of one or both testicles and thus produce
impotence; gummy tumors (gummata), which often perfo-
rate and destroy the velum palati (soft palate) and leave a
*0p. tit., pp. 526, 527.
410 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
double and revolting infirmity ; paralyses of the eye and face ;
hemiplegia and paraplegia; inflammation of bone, caries,
ozaena (foetid breath), flattening and loss of the nose; with-
out speaking of the possibility of hereditary transmission
and of the introduction of syphilis into the family circle.
But this is not yet all. If we consult n. manual of patholog-
ical anatomy, we shall find there described fatal lesions at-
tributable to syphilis alone. The causes of death in syphilis
are many and varied death by hepatic lesions, cirrhosis,
and hepatitis gummosa ; death by lesions of the meninges ;
by cerebral gummata and syphilitic encephalitis ; by lesions
of the spinal cord, which are more common than is generally
believed; by exostoses (bony outgrowths) of the cranium
and vertebrae; by lesions of the kidneys, of the larynx, and
of the lungs ; and, more rarely, by lesions of the oesoph-
agus and rectum ; death by consumption and progressive
cachexia (depraved bodily condition). These are, in short,
the possible consequences of syphilis, and such is the per-
spective offered to a person who contracts this contagion.
Dare we call a disease benign which can end thus? Can a
disease be called benign which is fraught with such serious
accidents and whose pathological anatomy is so rich and
varied? Dare we tell persons afflicted with this disease to
leave it untreated, to let things go, and to wait patiently
the possible results of such an infection, without warning
them of it?"
Tertiary Lesions. In cases where syphilis runs its regu-
lar course, unmodified by treatment, certain lesions of a
graver nature, called tertiary lesions, develop, usually in
the third or fourth year of the infection, but sometimes
even as late as ten, twenty, or even fifty years (Fournier).
With sufficient care in the treatment the tertiary symp-
toms may never appear ; but strangely these gravest mani-
festations of syphilis are, on account of the negligence in
treatment, more apt to follow in cases where the primary
and secondary ' lesions have been mild. For this reason
SYPHILIS. 411
they are more common in women, because everything pos-
sible is done to keep them in ignorance when they are inno-
cently infected. It is this " ignored syphilis" which pre-
sents the most shocking complications.
Tertiary syphilis is remarkable for its insidiousness and
its disorderly course, no two cases being alike. Therefore
it is impossible to write a full and clear account within
short limits. Sometimes the lesions come on like wildfire
within two to four months after infection and rapidly pro-
duce the most threatening complications and even death.
This is called "galloping syphilis."
But as a rule these tertiary lesions appear some time after
the second year. They differ from the secondary lesions
in being slower in development, less numerous, and more
destructive to the deeper parts of the body, e.g., the brain,
spinal cord, heart, blood-vessels, bones, muscles, viscera,
etc.
The tendency at this late stage of the disease is to a
progressive growth of granulation-tissue which produces
nodules and tumors ("granulomata," "gummata," or
" syphilomata") . With the lapse of time these new-cell
infiltrations ulcerate and necrose and otherwise cause cica-
trization, or sclerosis, in the most vital tissues of the body.
There is a special liability to the most horribly loathsome
and disfiguring skin affections. Sometimes the palate and
fauces are destroyed, so that the mouth, nose and pharynx
are converted into one enormous cavity, allowing food to
regurgitate through the nose and giving a distinctive nasal
quality to the voice which the French call "duck's voice."
In many cases the vocal cords are damaged, so that the
voice forever after remaiDS husky. Syphilis, in its later
manifestations, is capable of infecting any or all of the
tissues in the bodj r ; remotely it frequently causes death,
or the most hideous distortions and malformations, insan-
ity, paralysis, epilepsy, blindness, destruction of joints,
sterility, etc.
412 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Hereditary Syphilis. In the hereditary form of syphilis
there is no initial lesion, or chancre, and it cannot be divided
into well-defined stages. The manifestations of the disease
correspond in type to the secondary and tertiary stages,
which often coexist. Prenatal infection may overtake the
foetus from either the father or mother, or from both.
Paternal Transmission. After the father's chancre has
healed, constitutional symptoms having become manifest,
his semen may carry syphilitic infection during the proc-
ess of conception, even though the mother be not inocu-
lated. His share in procreation being limited to the mere
act of fecundation of the ovule, the blighting influence of
paternal descent is not so marked as when the mother has
constitutional syphilis. Without efficient treatment pater-
nal transmission is probable for at least four years after
his infection, and in some cases the child may be born
syphilitic even after many years of apparent absence of all
manifestations in the ancestor.
Maternal Transmission. After constitutional symptoms
have appeared in the mother, the foetus is liable to be born
syphilitic if born before the expiration of at least six years.
Or a healthy foetus may become infected if the pregnant
mother become syphilitic. Syphilis affecting women more
profoundly than men, especially in its great tendency to
produce a severe type of anaemia in them, the foetus has
less chance of developing normally when the mother is
tainted than when the morbid influence is derived solely
from the father. For the proper development and nour-
ishment of the foetus in utero it is necessary that the mother
should have good health, and consequently maternal trans-
mission is especially malign in its influence on the child.
Furthermore, when the mother is syphilitic there is great
risk of abortion and still-birth, owing to syphilitic lesions
in the placenta which interfere with the child's vitality.
Transmission from Both Parents. When both parents
are syphilitic at the time of impregnation, the child will
SYPHILIS. 413
surely be tainted. About one-third of such children will
perish before birth, while almost all of those born will die
within the first six months after birth.
" According to Kassowitz, 1 one-third of all children pro-
created of syphilitic parents are dead born, and of those
born living twenty-four per cent die within the first six
months of life. In his personal experience Founder 2 found
that in private practice more than two out -of three heredi-
tarily syphilitic children died, either before, at, or soon
after birth. In hospital practice Fournier found that out
of 167 children born of syphilitic mothers, 145 died ; which
means that one- child out of seven or eight survived. It
having been claimed that Fournier 's personal statistics
made an exceptionally bad showing, and that they were
exaggerated, he collected those from the whole world, his
own excepted. He gathered the histories of 447 cases of
children whose fathers or mothers were syphilitic, and
found that out of this number there were 343 deaths, there
being only 104 who survived. Of the 343 children who
died, only six lived beyond the first year. The proportion
of living children, according to these statistics, is 1 to
4.3. We may understand why the lesions of hereditary
syphilis are so severe and extensive, and why its fatality is
so great, when we consider how early in foetal life the spe-
cific virus exerts its influence, and how thorough^ it must
be diffused through the organism of the embryo." 8 The
longer the parents have had syphilis before they beget off-
spring the less is the chance of blighting of the foetus.
Transmission is most certain within the first year after
either or both parents have acquired the disease, and with
the lapse of time the chances grow gradually less and less,
though many years after all signs of syphilis have appar-
ently disappeared from the parents, the children may be
1 "Die Vererbung der Syphilis," Vienna, 1876.
2 "La Syphilis hereditaire tardive," Paris, 1886, pp. 160 et seq.
8 Taylor, op. cit., p. 290.
414 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
born syphilitic. This especially applies when the parents
have not received efficient treatment.
A healthy married woman, if she have a healthy hus-
band, naturally becomes impregnated, harbors the child
for nine calendar months, and thereafter suckles it for from
twelve to twenty months. Then, if she be prolific, gesta-
tions and sucklings succeed each other for a number of
times, births recurring approximately every three years.
But the syphilitic woman is liable to have a greater number
of pregnancies than if she were healthy for abortion after
abortion occurs, and the failure to suckle of course renders
her more subject to reimpregnation at an early date after
each mishap.
In tainted mothers each succeeding abortion usually
comes on later and later in the foetal development, until
after a time a living child may be born, which, however,
probably dies of syphilis. Then the next child may sur-
vive and develop, even though congenitally syphilitic, and
perhaps the subsequent children may be entirely free from
the disease.
Thus we see that syphilis gradually loses its tendency to
blight progeny, and that, unlike gonorrhoea, it does not
usually sterilize men or women, though producing much
the same ultimate result by causing successive abortions.
" Oonceptional Syphilis." Though long disputed, it is
now pretty generally accepted that a healthy mother can be
infected by a foetus which has been originated by the semen
of a syphilitic father. In the large majority of instances
the mother is infected with primary syphilis directly by
the father; but after his chancre has healed he may have
coitus with her without inoculating her, though his semen
renders the foetus syphilitic. In this event the mother
may acquire the disease from the foetus either by absorp-
tion of the toxins, or by direct reception of the germs of
syphilis into her circulation, if there have been any lacera-
tion or solution of continuity at the placental site.
SYPHILIS. 415
Prognosis in Hereditary Syphilis. When either or both
parents are constitutionally tainted the probabilities are,
as pointed out, that abortion after abortion will occur the
foetuses being born macerated, or softened by processes of
liquefaction.
If the child be born alive it will probably be a wizened,
deformed, stunted and blasted little thing, emaciated, hav-
ing a peculiar senile expression, and corrupted through
and through with the syphilitic virus. Fortunately they
usually die within the first few months. Or the child may
be born apparently healthy and not show any of the mani-
festations of this terrible disease until several weeks have
elapsed. In other cases of hereditary syphilis the outbreak
may be deferred until the time of the second dentition,
or until puberty, or it may not crop out until the child's
maturity.
It is hardly necessary to dwell upon the special lesions
which may appear throughout the life-history of such a
blasted innocent, since they are very similar to those re-
ferred to under acquired syphilis. Suffice it to say that
failures in development and the most hideous and shocking
deformities, blindness, deafness, paralysis, epilepsy, im-
pairment of mental powers, idiocy, hydrocephalus, and a
marked tendency to develop tubercular affections, are the
rule.
Syphilis and Marriage. When may a syphilitic marry?
Some years ago Fournier and Besnier said that a syphilitic
might incur the chances of a possible tragedy by marrying, if
he waited for four years after the initial lesion, provided that
he had undergone a careful and prolonged treatment. But
Besnier and others have recently advanced the limit, and
it is now considered that even under the most favorable
circumstances five years should elapse before marriage.
Morel-Lavallee, ' after presenting indisputable statistical
evidence that secondary lesions appear in patients, even
*Rev. de TUrapeut. M&d.-Chirurg, , November 15, 1896.
416 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
when under skilled medical observation, for five, ten, or
even more years, maintains that it should be an invariable
rule not to allow patients to marry for at least five years
after infection, and not even then unless a whole year has
elapsed without any appearance of secondary symptoms,
e.g., mucous patches in the mouth, erosions on lips or
tongue, etc. After five years, if vigorous specific treatment
has been intelligently followed, the chances that syphilis
will be transmitted to the offspring are slight, but in no
case can a positive assurance of immunity be given.
The advice which the average physician might give to a
patient that he might marry five years after the primary
infection and when no signs had been seen for over a year
would be quite different from his absolute refusal when
the syphilitic contemplated marriage with some member of
his own family, even though the suitor had acquired the
disease innocently.
From the standpoint of a wise and thoughtful justice to
the interests of the race, syphilitics should never marry ;
for, though many undoubtedly eventually have healthy
children, yet there can never be a gladsome confidence that
lesions will not at some time appeal: in the children,
and that the results will not extend to the children's
children.
The Treatment of Syphilis. Of all the classes of patients
which a physician sees none appear more utterly demoral-
ized and frightened than men of intelligence who have
acquired syphilis. The lack of happiness in their faces
and their apparent abandonment of all hope are quite char-
acteristic.
Yet, if the patient be not a fool, if he will forego the
falsehood customary in venereal affairs, if he will submit to
the trouble, expense and irksomeness of at least two years
of active treatment, and remain under observation for
months or years thereafter, the chances are that all the
graver manifestations of the disease can be checked.
SYPHILIS. 417
If syphilis be carefully and systematically treated for a
sufficient period of time it is, as a rule, tractable, so that
the appearance of tertiary symptoms is now usually re-
garded as an evidence of neglect. Yet in a certain propor-
tion of cases the process is malignant and cannot be checked.
Syphilis is one of the very few diseases for which we have
"specifics," or remedies which are peculiarly efficacious;
as quinine is to malaria, so are mercury and the iodides to
it. In fact the role of medicine in this affection is nothing
short of brilliant. But certain factors are essential for suc-
cess. The patient must select a physician of high repute,
to whose requirements he must submit as absolutely as
does the traveller to his guide in the dark miles of passage-
ways and recesses in the Mammoth Cave. The slightest
deviation from the path pointed out by his medical guide,
however unattractive or unreasonable that path may seem,
will surely result in irreparable damage, and for the next
few years every consideration of time, money, or inclina-
tion must be subserviently set aside until the patient has
been extricated from the labyrinth of corruption.
However wearisome it may be, the patient must be docile
and absolutely obedient for this prolonged time ; otherwise
this disease will produce conditions so horrible as to be
quite beyond accepting, especially when by care they can
be prevented. Given a wise and painstaking physician and
an obedient patient, it is now generally recognized that
syphilis can almost certainly be overcome in time. In
fact there is preponderating evidence that in certain in-
stances reinfection has occurred. For more than one hun-
dred years mercury has been known as a specific in this
disease, and it remains to-day our most efficient drug.
Equally useful in their places are the iodides of potash
and of soda, the former of which is more commonly em-
ployed.
The various methods of treatment which are indicated in
different cases and in the different stages of the disease are
27
418
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
so technical and professional, and throw so little light on
the peculiar characteristics of the pathology, that it would
here be quite out of place to attempt their consideration.
Consequently the interested reader is referred to the vari-
ous excellent text-books on the subject.
CHAPTER XH.
ONANISM.
ONANISM is a term of comprehensive meaning, applicable
in a broad sense to all forms of sexual stimulation employed
by either sex, singly or mutually, to produce orgasm in
unnatural ways i.e., otherwise than by coitus. The
onanistic acts are as follows: "Withdrawal," or the
offence of Onan 1 ; " coitus in os" ; " coitus inter femora" ;
pederasty; bestiality; "mutual masturbation"; "self-pol-
lution" (masturbation, auto-sexual indulgence) , etc.
None of these acts have in view the perpetuation of the
species, and all are therefore perversions. We shall here
chiefly concern ourselves with onanism in relation to the
acts of self-pollution, which, of all the varieties, is by far
the most frequent.
Causes which Predispose to Auto- Sexual Stimulation.
Anything which produces irritation in the genital zone, or
which strongly directs the attention to those parts, is liable
to result in handling of the privates, and thus the habit is
often acquired by children without consciousness of wrong.
Eczema, pruritus (intolerable itching locally) , worms in the
rectum, a too tight or too redundant prepuce, the accumu-
lation of smegma, or the natural cheese-like material, be-
neath the foreskin, and various other causes, all lead to
manipulation of the sexual apparatus.
Certain kind of movements occasion pleasurable lustful
feelings in certain individuals ; for instance, the gymnastic
feats of swinging on a trapeze, rope-climbing, etc. , are fol-
lowed by ejaculation in not a few instances. Dangers also
1 Vide Genesis xxxviii., 9.
420 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
lurk in improperly adjusted bicycle saddles, badly-fitting
clothing, and, occasionally, even in the running of sewing-
machines.
Pollutions may follow these acts without the individual
having the slightest impure intent, but are quite harmless
unless employed as excuses for indulgence by voluntary
self-stimulation. But the more frequent causes of mastur-
bation lie in other directions. In every aggregation of
children a certain proportion are seduced by the bad ex-
ample of their perversely inclined companions. This is,
or should be, known to all teachers in schools. In refor-
matories for juveniles, and in prisons for adults, mutual and
auto-masturbation is notoriously prevalent, and is only
kept down by constant vigilance on the part of the wardens.
The author is informed by the attendants at the District
Reform School that the boys, most of whom, by the way,
have "stigmata of degeneration," or anatomical defects,
must be watched day and night in order to prevent these
practices and even then they find opportunities for perverse
indulgence. It is a mistake to assume that this vice is
limited to growing boys, for it is practised more or less in
every assemblage of either sex where they are grouped to-
gether in large numbers, and also, of course, by numerous
individuals of all ages in private life. Some nurses have a
vicious habit of quieting children by titillation of their
genitals ; and ther~e is no doubt that pleasurable feelings,
with erection, can be induced many years before the time of
puberty. This, of course, predisposes to furious masturba-
tion later on. " There seems hardly any limit to the age at
which a young child can be initiated into these abomina-
tions, or to the depths of degradation to which it may fall
under such hideous teaching." Sometimes nurses, or
servant-maids, practise masturbation on children, chiefly
boys, for their own curiosity, and sometimes they actually
copulate with them, secure in their opportunities from all
1 " Acton on the Reproductive Organs, " p. 39.
ONANISM. 421
chance of exposure. In this way young children have
occasionally been infected with venereal disease. Various
habits of children predispose them to vicious ways, such
as idleness, apathy in play, too long repose in bed, the
use of spicy food, etc.
Masturbation is sometimes a symptom of brain-disease,
and sometimes a legacy inherited along with an unstable
nervous system. It is frequent in hysteria, mania, idiocy,
imbecility, insanity, epilepsy and dementia, and such un-
fortunates are also very prone to manifest tendencies in the '
direction of other perversions.
Varieties of Masturbation. The sexual orgasm may be
induced (1), by a local friction and stimulation of the
erogenous areas; 1 (2), solely by a vivid psychical excita-
tion; (3), or by a combination of the local and imaginative
processes.
In the adult, masturbation is almost always accompanied
by lively and highly colored mind-pictures which are ex-
cessively pleasing to the individual ; in fact he is sure to
picture to himself those ideational concepts which will best
help him to reach an extreme acme of orgasm. Such situ-
ations as he paints for himself can rarely be enjoyed in
reality, and thus he often gets to prefer his solitary habit
to the normal act. But in a few cases the imagination
plays a secondary part, and the individual derives a purely
physical pleasure by friction of the erogenous areas.
Some individuals who have resorted to great excesses
in venere and masturbation arrive at a condition where the
1 The primary erogenous areas are : in man, the glans penis,
foreskin and testicles ; in woman, the vagina, clitoris, cervix uteri
and nipples. Secondary, or artificial erogenous areas may patho-
logically exist in almost any locality in certain individuals, e.g. , in
places in proximity to the genital organs and breasts, or in the anus ;
and many individuals have certain areas, ears, lips, wrists, hands,
feet, legs, etrs., the manipulations of which at the hands of the
opposite sex may excite lustful feelings quite independently of evil
intention.
422 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
fancy is so abnormally excitable, and where they have such
a degree of psycho-sexual hyperaesthesia that they can in-
dulge in what is called " psychical onanism," " ideal coitus,"
or "mental masturbation." In such the mere influence of
erotic thoughts and visions can bring about lustful feeling,
or even pollution, in the wakeful state and in dreams, and
many of them are largely concerned in picturing to them-
selves the most pleasing situations of sexual relations.
Cases are recorded where persons who have no pleasure
1 from tactile stimulation yet have erection and ejaculation
by "ideal coitus." Schrenck-Notzing ' gives the following
typical case :
" One of my patients is also able to indulge in the pleas-
ure of this ideal coitus at any time. A quiet, comfortable
position, either lying or sitting, is the preparatory measure
necessary for success. Then he allows his fancy free rein,
and dreams intensely though consciousness is intact
that he is in the desired situation, until ejaculation takes
place."
In hypersesthetic individuals various external influences
react on the brain through the senses of sight, hearing,
touch and smell, so as to reflexly produce sexual stimula-
tion and ejaculation; and sometimes even a memory-pic-
ture, if brought before the mind in an intense light, may
produce a similar effect. There are many persons, with-
out question, who practise some form of this oculo-cerebral
masturbation. The contemplation of lascivious plays and
costumes, the masquerading in the attire of the opposite
sex, the applause for pictures in the nude, the enthusiasm
for the ballet, for erotic literature, and for many other of
the immodest amusements of society, all afford onanistic
enjoyment to some at least of the beholders and partici-
pants along these lines. In that such amusements are
erotic and highly stimulating sexually to certain nervous
individuals predisposed to immorality, they come well
1 "Suggestive Therapeutics in Psychopathia Sexualis," p. 10
ONANISM. 423
within the limits of mental masturbation, and should be
recognized as such by the censors of public entertainments.
Results of Onanism. Onanism in any form is exceedingly
harmful in the injury done to both mind and body, because
from its want of conformity to nature it keeps the imagina-
tion inflamed with erotic excitement and exaggerates the
importance of the sexual functions in the individual's view,
besides draining the system of one of the most vital fluids
by a frequency of gratification usually not practised by the
fornicator. This form of excitation produces an intense
nervous shock, which is greater than that produced in
coitus.
Psychical Results. 1. It destroys the normal sexual feel-
ing and substitutes for it inflamed passions and a hyper-
excitability of the sexual functions.
2. It separates the victim further and further from wo-
men and puts him into a peculiarly unnatural relation to
them.
3. It renders him indisposed to marriage by poisoning
the very source from which the impulse to love comes.
4. It tends to ruin the very foundations of his vita
sexualis by substituting an unnatural and purposeless act
for the physiological incentive of procreation.
5. The onanist transgresses the law of self-preservation
and prostitutes his sexual^ powers, thereby losing the stimu-
lus to put forth his strength, with the loss as well of self-
confidence.
6. He becomes a morose, solitary, timid and cowardly
semblance of manhood.
7. He becomes psychically impotent and unfit for nat-
ural coitus, because natural means disappoint him and are
not so pleasing as the fantastic fancies which he pictures
to himself.
8. His conscience is perverted by the inherent apper-
ception of his sin and shame, and his mental strength and
power of concentration become weakened.
424 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
9. Being maintained in a constant state of lustful feel-
ing he is liable to fall a victim to male seducers and pe-
derasts, of whom there are many.
10. Psychically and physically he becomes characterless,
less and less a man, and more and more a slave to his
passions, the opportunity for the gratification of which is
always in his power.
Physical Effects. Our very lives are bound up with our
reproductive organs, the testicles being wonderful labora-
tories for the development of a secretion which is superla-
tively essential in the activities of life. * From the time of
puberty on, this secretion is constantly being elaborated,
and its function is for procreation and not for debasement
by sensual pleasure. The constitutional effects of wantonly
squandering it are mostly manifested in injury to the ner-
vous system.
1. The victim is subject to loss of spirit, weakness of
memory, despondency and apathy.
2. He suffers languor, irritability, headaches, neuralgias,
dimness of vision, etc.
3. Anaemia and facial acne are common.
4. There is loss of manly bearing, and proneness to blush.
5. The path leads to imbecility and premature senility.
6. The countenance and demeanor stamp the onanist as
an object of reasonable suspicion.
7. He is often unable to free himself from the grasp of
the habit, because there is poor material on which to call
for manly restraint.
8. His genitals bear the marks of his degrading practice.
9. His digestion and heart action are disturbed, and he
becomes a moody, apprehensive, hypochondriacal invalid,
if not a gross pervert.
10. He may suffer from diurnal and nocturnal involun-
tary pollutions, spermatorrhoea or prostatorrhoea. Some-
times there is irritability at the neck of the bladder with
inability to pass water or to retain it.
ONANISM. 425
11. He bequeaths aii undesirable legacy to his posterity,
giving both his sons and daughters a proneness to psy-
choses and neuroses, especially in their sexual proclivities.
" Nothing is so prone to contaminate under certain cir-
cumstances, even to exhaust the source of all noble and
ideal sentiments, which arise of themselves from a nor-
mally developing sexual instinct, as the practice of mas-
turbation in early years. It despoils the unfolding bud of
perfume and beauty, and leaves behind only the coarse,
animal desire for sexual satisfaction. If an individual,
spoiled in this manner, reaches an age of maturity, there
is wanting in him that aesthetic, ideal, pure and free im-
pulse which draws one toward the opposite sex. Thus the
glow of sensual sensibility wanes, and the inclination toward
the opposite sex becomes weakened. This defect influences
the morals, character, fancy, feeling, and instinct of the
youthful masturbator, male or female, in an unfavorable
way, and, under certain circumstances, allows the desire
for the opposite sex to sink to nil; so that masturbation
is preferred to the natural mode of satisfaction."
Some, to whom the sexual functions and their anomalies
are a terra incognita, seem to believe that onanism is not
necessarily more harmful than coitus if it is kept within
proper limits and not performed any more frequently ; for,
they argue, semen is expended in each act, and it matters
not where it is deposited. Physically it might not be more
injurious if only occasionally indulged in ; but the psychical
disaster stands ever prominently in the way, and little by
little self-control is lost until the habit has become, as Ci-
cero says, "a furious task-master." Certainly every mas-
turbator does not sink to the lowest depths, for thousands
upon thousands have at some time in their lives indulged
in self -abuse to some extent; but the tendencies are all
downward, with the chances in favor of the habit getting
the mastery over the individual. Naturally enough, the
1 Kraff t-Ebing : " Psychopath ia Sexualis, " p. 188.
426 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
longer the vice is indulged in and the earlier it is com-
menced, the more it destroys the morals and the finer
qualities of the mind and imagination, so that it is as-
suredly true that these attributes the finer endowments of
man suffer graver lesions than do the physical.
In this extraordinary form of sexual gratification the im-
agination, in adults at least, is almost always brought into
play artificially with tremendous force, without which
psychical process the act would be bereft of its chief charm.
However frightened the masturbator may become when
he begins to realize the results of his vice, and however
much he may experience a loathing for himself, it is yet
most difficult for him to reinstate himself into a normal
sexual condition, because of the pathological state into
which his mental, moral and physical natures have been
degraded a plight most unfavorable for the exercise of self-
control and mastery. What he supposed to be a slender
rope which bound him, he finds to his dismay to be an iron
chain when he struggles to free himself.
In long-continued cases the masturbator may be worried
by pollutions which occur involuntarily day and night, and
the spermatorrhoea may sap his vitality without the ac-
companiment of any pleasurable feeling. If he undertake
to have sexual intercourse he may have premature ejacula-
tion in the attempt and the act may result in a farce. Or
he may have the power to perform coitus (potentia coeundi),
but not the power to procreate (potentia generandi), or both
may be absent.
This sort of creature is only the counterfeit of a man,
and it is well that he is disinclined to marry, for such an
ancestor is unfit to found or perpetuate a family.
Thus it is evident that masturbation is always harmful,
even if seldom performed, not so much on account of the
loss of semen as on account of the deep impression on the
central nervous system the brain and spinal cord. Al-
most always there is required an extraordinary intense-
ONANISBl. 427
ness of imagination out of all proportion to that experi-
enced in the normal act, and so the character is injured, the
victim becoming independent of the opposite sex and ac-
quiring imperative mental concepts which may require to
be reproduced, either psychically or in reality, if he is
to be potent in the sexual act. " The dreams [images]
which accompany the onanistic act are not realized in
marriage, and to the great surprise of such patients their
virility is well-nigh extinguished."
The onanist may become both relatively and psychically
impotent. By " relative impotence" is meant where a man
is potent with special women who please his fancy, and im-
potent with others ; thus a man may be frigid toward his
wife, though quite potent with prostitutes.
In " psychical impotence" erection is prevented by in-
hibitory nerve-influence from the brain ; thus the consum-
mation of the sexual act may be impossible in normal coitus
among those men who have employed unnatural and de-
grading means for the production of orgasm. The devices
employed by prostitutes may stimulate them to an unnat-
ural degree of lustful passion, while they are impotent for
marriage with pure women. 3
If the practice of masturbation be begun before full de-
velopment is reached it prevents the evolution cf the mas-
culine type of mind and body, and if there is any heredi-
tary strain of insanity it is the most favorable means of
bringing it to evidence. Furthermore, almost all sexual
perverts owe their anomalies of desire, inclination and
fancy to the neurasthenia brought on by either their own
or their ancestors' onanism. If a man is to have progeny
with normal nervous systems, he must not by any manner
of onanism abuse those very functions upon which all in-
heritance depends. The act of "withdrawal," or "conju-
gal onanism," is merely one form of mutual masturbation;
1 Schrenck-Notzing, loc. cit., p. 17.
'Compare Ultzmann, " Gen ito- Urinary Neuroses," pp. 32 and 148.
428 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
and, if pregnancy by chance follows at some time, the child
will certainly show evidences of abnormality of desire or
conformation at some stage in its history. Onanism in
any form is thus most unfair to posterity far more so than
can be appreciated by a layman who neglects to read works '
on heredity, criminality and allied medical topics ; and no
right-minded person can give any quarter to a vice so de-
structive of everything noble and dignified in human nature.
Onanism is, of course, sometimes practised by the other
sex, but not nearly to the same extent as by men. The dis-
astrous results in them do not come about on account of the
loss of any vital fluid though there is, at the height of
orgasm, a secretion from the glands of Bartholin but the
act exerts a powerful influence on their more susceptible
nervous systems, producing hysteria, convulsions, men-
strual disorders, aberrations in the domain of love, etc.
A cloud hangs over thousands of homes which shelter
these enervated and neurasthenic individuals ; only a few
of the unfortunates seek medical advice, partly on account
of shame, partly on account of their seeming happiness in
their degraded sensuality. The majority a vast number
are practising the vice in solitude ; some reach the asy-
lums ; more fall victims to the wickedness of charlatans and
advertising pariahs of the medical profession.
Treatment of Onanism. Every child has good and bad
propensities, for health and disease, for morality or vice,
which tend to unfold themselves at the different stages of
life's drama. No family blood is so noble that it is not in
a measure contaminated by the legacy of some ancestor,
more or less remote, on either the paternal or maternal
side; and a failure to recognize this is to admit one's self
to be a fool or a demigod.
Well would it be if families looked forward to posterity,
for which they are responsible, with the same pride with
which they look backward to their ancestors, for whom
they are not responsible ! To regard any child as free from
ONANISM. 429
sensual danger is criminally negligent, while to recognize
that all flesh is susceptible to contamination is the part of
wisdom. We have daily evidence of the power of early
suggestions over human instincts, and it would be well in-
deed if we should effectively appreciate the fact that mental
and nervous diseases are especially liable to be transmitted
to offspring, giving them neuropathic dispositions which
are the most favorable foundations upon which to rear
temples dedicated to vice.
Yet ths evil tendencies may as a rule be counteracted by
directing the children in right paths and giving them occu-
pations which will bring forth healthy minds in sound
bodies. Success may more confidently be looked for in
the upbuilding of character and physique if the child is
early sent in the right direction, and his virtues will then
overcome his hereditary weaknesses. Powerful though
the reversional heritages of both injurious and beneficial
qualities undoubtedly are, yet of even greater importance
is the influence of the external surroundings, or environ-
ment, on the child of occupation, of ideals which are set
before him, of imitation, of curiosity, or of cultivation of
vice. " Environment is the co-operating and to us vitally
important factor, inasmuch as it may supplement and thus
reinforce the hereditary tendencies, whether good or bad;
or it may even tend to turn them into new channels, cor-
recting the evil or vitiating the good."
It must be borne in mind that suggestions received in
childhood are prone to have a preponderating influence on
the whole future life of the individual in an abnormal or
normal direction; so that the surroundings of children
must be considered, and they must be watched and pro-
tected both against contamination by evil companions and
from local causes of irritation in the genital area. It is
unfair to a child to permit him to be unclean in his geni-
'D. K. Shute, M.D. : "Heredity with Variation." New York
Medical Journal, September 11, 1897.
430 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
tals, and so he must be taught, as a part of his daily ablu-
tions, to retract the foreskin and to wash away the srnegma
which is secreted by the inner mucous lining of that in-
tegumentary covering ; otherwise it often undergoes an am-
moniacal decomposition, becomes foul-smelling and keeps
up a constant source of discomfort. Better by far would it
be if all boys were circumcised, for that safeguard prac-
tically excludes all possibility of local irritation and has
not a single argument in its disfavor. In this event there
is no necessity of paying the slightest attention to the
cleanliness of the genitals any more than to other parts of
the body. The Jews that circumcised nation who to this
day remain as the " standing astonishment of the world"
are a notoriously prolific race, comparatively free from mas-
turbation and venereal diseases.
Curiosity and imitation, as is well known, are almost
apishly shown by active children always with a tendencj^
to go beyond any evil example which is set, and, if not
warned, they are in peril of falling under the influence of
older companions of depraved proclivities. The young boy
enjoys the act of masturbation but little, and is often spurred
on by the influence of banter and ridicule, without, as a
rule, any definite comprehension of wrong. In fact, most
persons who have practised this vice have never received
careful warning when young. There is no danger of cor-
rupting a pure child by a properly given admonition, telling
him that he will probably see others committing the sinful
act of play with their private parts, and appealing to him to
shun all such companions.
Can it be possible to keep a bright child's mind free from
sexual matters when he sees sexual acts among the dogs and
the cats, in the poultry-yard and around the barn ; when
he reads things in the papers which excite his wonder;
when he sees the flaring posters of ballet-dancers ; when
he comes into contact with badly brought-up schoolmates?
No, it is impossible, unless he is reared up as a delicate,
ONANISM. 431
soft-skinned, girlish boy, and for such the danger is even
greater than for the boy of the street. In each individual's
character self stands out prominently in fact self repre-
sents the individual. Therefore it is this self which must
be early regulated so that the child may become self-gov-
erned, self-masterful, self-respecting and self-controlled, all
of which requires an effort of repression and mastery. This
represents the acme of effective education. Otherwise he
must necessarily become self-willed, self-indulgent, self-
abased, self -polluted and selfish. It is most highly desir-
able that the sexes should be encouraged to find pleasure
in each other's society, and that they should not stay too
much apart ; for they are the natural complements of each
other, and bring out, by the stimulus of friendship, the
best qualities in one another. And yet we must discoun-
tenance any marked preference for the opposite sex, dis-
couraging girls from being torn-boys and boys from play-
ing girlish games, for these are evils of a specially
dangerous tendency. One of the best ways to develop the
moral natures of children is by play, which, as every ob-
server of child-nature knows, is essential for the making of
a fine man or woman. This play-element, furthermore,
should be kept active throughout life, for in this way one's
mind is kept bright, one's character generous and compan-
ionable, and one's physique hearty and strong. Boys
should be encouraged to excel in manly sports to ride,
row, swim, etc. ; to have deep chests and hard muscles, to
play hard and to study hard. An athletic boy will hardly
fall into great harm, and to the discipline of his muscles
there is added a still greater discipline to his mind, and
character, and pluck, and inflexibility and manliness.
With all this care it will be an idle effort if the child is
left to grow up without moral and religious precepts which
will equip him with a normal conscience as a mentor of his
actions to inhibit his evil passions.
Medicinal treatment for the effects of masturbation plays
432
HEREDITY AND MORALS.
a secondary role, but is not without benefit in suitable
cases. The functional disease of the heart, the digestive
disturbances, the dimness of vision, the hang-dog counte-
nance, and all the other stigmata of the vice, rapidly dis-
appear, as a rule, with the abandonment of the practice.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PERVEKSIONS (PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS PSYCHOPATHOL-
OGY OF THE SEXUAL LlFE).
THE perversions show the dark side of man's nature, in
which normal impulses have become dislocated. This
most revolting subject falls mainly within the province of
the physician, the alienist or specialist in nervous dis-
eases, the jurist and the criminal lawyer; but in the pres-
ent work it cannot be entirely ignored.
The treatise of von Kraff t-Ebing ' is practically the only
scientific source of information in this territory, teaching
nothing immoral, and containing many beautiful passages
in contrast with the horrible details which it is his duty as
a psychiatrist to rehearse. As the author's observations
in this line have been very limited, he is compelled to draw
all his ideas in this realm' from this source, claiming no
credit. In a personal communication from the distin-
guished Vienna professor, permission has been cordially
granted and encouragement given to make such use of his
work as may be of service.
" The importance of the subject for the welfare of society,
especially forensically, demands, however, that it should
be examined scientifically. Only he who, as a medico-
legal expert, has been in a position where he has been
compelled to pass judgment upon his fellow-men, where
life, freedom and honor were at stake, and realized pain-
fully the incompleteness of our knowledge concerning the
pathology of the sexual life, can fully understand the signifi-
cance of an attempt to gain definite views concerning it." a
1 " Psychopathia Sexualis," translated by C. G. Chaddock, M.D.,
1893. 'Loc. tit., Preface, p. iv.
434 HEREDITY AND MORALS.
Every sexual act is perverse " which does not correspond
with the purpose of nature, i.e., propagation." It is im-
portant to distinguish between perversion, which is a men-
tal disease, and perversity, which is a vice; the former
comes from a clouded intellect, the latter from mere
wickedness.
By "perversions" we mean cases in which sensual pleas-
ure is derived from acts disgusting and repellent, or per-
haps simply incomprehensible, to normal persons. The
victims of these terrible anomalies of sexual taste, belong-
ing mostly to highly civilized races, have either lost all
ideas of morality and propriety, or they have been con-
genitally lacking in ethical and aesthetic perceptions.
It is most important to understand that sexual perverts
are chiefly the heirs upon whom the predisposing taint has
been cast by sexually overstimulated ancestors. Herein
lies one of the greatest dangers in all sexual improprie-
ties.
The most noteworthy perversions are :
Fetichism, in which sexual interest is confined to parts of
the body as the foot, hand or hair ; or to accidental acces-
sories, such as articles of clothing ; or to special materials
as fur, velvet, etc.
Sadism, in which lust is combined with or even satiated
by acts of cruelty, ranging from actual murder to trivial
infliction of pain. The term is derived from the infamous
Marquis de Sade, ' in whose obscene novels lust and cruelty
played an important part.
Masochism from Sacher-Masoch, whose novels were
founded on this perversion. The opposite of sadism. An
abnormal desire for humiliation and abuse by women.
Sexual excitement from whippings seems very common,
1 Tliis wretch, personally converting his fictions into fact, was
committed to the Bastille, and finally died in the lunatic asylum of
Charenton ( Vide Barras, " Memoires, " torn. i. , pp. 56, 57 ; Hachette
tCie., Paris, 1896). ED.
THE PERVERSIONS OF THE SEXUAL LIFE. 435
and such tendencies should be watched for by those whose
duties relate to children.
flousseau, having been first sensually excited at the early
age of eight years by a whipping at the hands of Mile.
Lambercier, became a masochist. "Who would believe
that this child-punishment, received at eight years old
from the hand of a woman of thirty, determined my future
taste, my desires, my passions, my whole being for the re-
mainder of my life, and that in a manner quite the opposite
of what might naturally be expected? ... To fall at the
feet of an imperious mistress, to obey her mandates, to be
obliged to implore her pardon, were to me most exquisite
enjoyments." l
Necrophilism,* Homo- Sexuality, 3 or Contrary Sexual In-
stinct. This grave and deplorable perversion, little recog-
nized but all too common, has prevailed in all ages and
in all nations. It is constantly referred to in Greek
literature, and Herodotus speaks of the Scythians as hav-
ing learned pederasty in Asia, and becoming transformed
into the feminine type. He says that " the goddess Venus
Urania let Orj/.stav vowo* fall upon them i.e., the passion
or disease which transformed them into women. 4 The
Or t Xsta <;duff<>$ of Herodotus practically means what we call
"contrary sexual feeling." 5
" There is one element in the study of sexual perversion
that deserves especial attention. . . . The offspring of the
abnormally carnal individual is likely to be possessed of
the same inordinate sexual appetite that characterizes the
parent. The child of vice has within it, in many instances,
1 Rousseau's "Confessions," Book I.
8 Ne/cpdf (Nekros) = corpse. 4>/Aof (Philos) = lover.
3 'O/^f (homos) = same, a prefix signifying sameness ; posite
of erepof (heteros) = another, a prefix denoting difference.
4 Vide Schrenck-Notzing, loc. cit., p. 136.
6 See also St. Paul, Romans i., 24, 26, 27. The classical reader
may also look at Lucian, Dialog. Meretr. V., Amores, Convivium,
ED.
436 HEREDITY AND MOKALS.
the germ of vicious impulse, and no purifying influence can
save it. ... Men and women who seek, from mere satiety,
variations of the normal method . . . stamp their nervous
systems with a malign influence which in the next genera-
tion may present itself as true sexual perversion. Acquired
sexual perversion in one generation may be a true constitu-
tional and irradicable vice in the next, and this indepen-
dently of gross physical aberrations."
The law often passes sentence on those who are not mor-
ally responsible; failing to distinguish between intellec-
tually clouded " perverts" and those who are "perverse."
Persons of sound mind occasionally commit the most
monstrously perverse acts, but in every such case there is
a presumption of psychical disturbance, and care should
be exercised in the choice of the prison or the asylum.
The writer is told by medical friends who are in a better
position than he to know, that our country is becoming
alarmingly corrupted by these shocking practices, which
work out their worst effects upon posterity.
NOTE. For want of space and for other reasons, this chapter has
been greatly abridged from the original manuscript.
Those whose callings necessitate acquaintance with the loath-
some details may profitably consult the invaluable work of von
Krafft-Ebing, which contains not a word to excite a lascivious
thought in any reasonably decently constituted man. But " where
the bee sucks honey the spider sucks poison" ; and save for the
knowledge that irregularities of the parent may entail upon the
children the inheritance of a brain-structure directly perhaps irre-
sistibly predisposing to unspeakable depravities, the less the gen-
eral reader meddles with this kind of literature the better. ED.
^'Addresses and Essays," G. Frank Lydston, M.D., p. 248.
FINIS.
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